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BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



Atonement and the Law ; or Redemption in Harmony 
with Law as Revealed in Nature. By John M. 
Armour. 8vo. 240 pages . . $1.25. 

"This is a strong and thoroughly satisfactory book. With much reverence, 
much modesty and much decision, the true substitutionary theory of the atone- 
ment is defended, and its reasonableness proved without the slightest concession 
to error. Indeed, Mr. Armour most fearlessly goes farther than some who have 
been long looked upon as leaders, and presents a statement of the philosophy of 
redemption, which is consistent, reverent, and above all scriptural. The argument 
is clear, logical and irresistible. We have read every word of the book with de- 
light, and to our personal edification. While dealing with a profound topic. Mr. 
Armour has done so in a most attractive manner." — Episcopal Recorder, Phila. 

"It is a great work — one of the most vigorous books in the language. It de- 
serves a place in the library of every minister and theological student."— The 
Herald and Presbyter. 

"One of the most vigorous of recent theological works."— The Interior, 
Chicago. 

" An original line of argument that is at once clear, strong and conclusive." — 
The Lutheran Observer, Philadelphia. 

The Divine Method of Life. By John M. Armour. 
8vo. 244 pages .... $1.25 

The Episcopal Recorder says: "We have no hesitation in saying that Mr. Ar- 
mour has produced a deeper, wider and more satisfactory work than that by. Pro- 
fessor Drummond.'''' 

"Unity of the plan and law, in Nature and in Grace, a very captivating thought. 
. . . leads to brilliant generalizations. ... A book stimulating and helpful." 
— The Examiner, N. Y. 

" A strong, fresh volume . . . eminently suggestive.*'— ZioiVs Herald. 

The Messenger, Philadelphia, — "It has been almost universally commended by 
orthodox Christians, and yet this is not because it falls in with commonplace 
thought. It elevates the subject by better reasoning than has prevailed, and wins 
the assent of those who have depended on weaker arguments." 

Mercy and Law ; Its Place in the Divine Govern- 
ment. Bv John M. Armour. 



MERCY 



ITS PLACE IN 

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 



BY 



JOHN M. ARMOUR, 



Author of "Atonement and Law," "The Divine Method 
of Life," etc. 



'•Be ye merciful as your Father is ijtercifuli' 



But mercy, . . . 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 
■It is an attribute of God himself; 
And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
'■ When mercy seasons justice ..." 







, 



t u 



BOSTON: 
BRADLEY & WOODRUFF, PUBLISHERS. 



>> v 






Copyright by 

BRADLEY & WOODRUFF, 

1891. 



PREFACE 



As the sun in the heavens, even so the Supreme 
Example, mercy in Christ, shines in glory far 
above the Works and Ways of God ; and even 
above the Word of Divine Revelation. This Ex- 
ample is higher, brighter and more glorious than 
the Law of God revealed in any other way in 
which the law can be revealed. It is itself law, 
the very highest form of law ; and withal, admi- 
rably suited to man. For the Son of God in our 
nature going before us in the " fulfilment of all 
righteousness," carrying obedience to its very 
limit, becoming " obedient unto death," gives us a 
most affecting, a most perfect — a Divine Example 
of the way in which man may imitate God. 

Studying the Supreme Example of Mercy, we 
soon discover that it teaches us not only that God 
is Merciful to Mankind, but that He is Merciful 

3 



4 PREFACE. 

in Himself *; and that this, His Real Character, is 
signified in all that he doeth ; and that His Govern- 
ment is throughout merciful as well as righteous. 

When we proceed to look closely into the Work 
of Christ, to consider just what it was that He did 
for us, we soon discover that His mercy to us con- 
sisted in the Satisfaction of Law, first, for us, by 
His Great Atonement; and then, by His Grace in 
us, bringing us into conformity to the Law of God. 
And from the study of the one Supreme Example 
of Mercy, we are led to see that all mercy, by 
whomsoever shown, must be in reality the " Imi- 
tation of Christ." 

Carefully considering how, in the nature of the 
case, mercy, which in its entireness consists in 
satisfying law, can be dispensed unto moral beings, 
violators of law, having free will, and being re- 
sponsible, it soon comes clearly into view that 
this can be, in divine mercy shown to man, or 
mercy by man to his fellow-man, never, either (a) 
against or (b) without the will or (c) without the 
act of those to whom the mercy is shown. 

Confessedly in none of "His Goings" are the 
" clouds" and the "darkness" so impenetrable 
as in the matter of His Sovereignty in dealing 



PREFACE. 5 

with mankind under the present Dispensation of 
Mercy. What takes place between God Most 
High and man the sinner, when a soul is saved 
or lost ; saved by faith and penitence, or lost by 
unbelief and impenitence ; what takes place in the 
very centre of that Cyclonic Storm-cloud which 
hurls to perdition or lifts to glory ; perhaps not one 
of the angels in heaven may fully understand. 
Before the great mystery man may well stand with 
awe and deep humility. " He will have mercy on 
whom we will have mercy " "It is not of him 
that willeth or of him that runneth, but of God 
that showeth mercy." But while the Clouds and 
Darkness arc round about Him, we can know 
assuredly that His dealings with each individual 
of our race, whatever be the result of these deal- 
ings, will reveal Him to be Merciful as well as 
Righteous ; we can know assuredly that He, oper- 
ating in the awful, impenetrable darkness, is the 
same God whose infinite goodness is proclaimed in 
His word, displayed in His works, and witnessed 
by all in the whole course of His providence. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 

THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 

PAGE 

Goodness the same in all beings. — Its essential characteristic. 

— It terminates on other beings. — Mercy the highest form 
of goodness. — Charity which costs nothing ? — The Imita- 
tion of the Supreme Example. — Discriminative goodness. 

— Promises to the penitent. — The final mystery. — Divine 
sovereignty. — Man's responsibility. — Separateness and 
loneliness of each moral being. — The revealed way of 
return to God 13 



PART I.— MERCY IN CHARACTER AND GOVERNMENT. 
CHAPTER I. 

MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 

Known to all as merciful. — Merciful to the redeemed. — Merci- 
ful to the race. — The sole grounds of condemnation. — 
Mercy accepted. — Mercy rejected. — Delay not that Christ 
might, but because he had interposed. — All to be judged 
for the manner in which they respond to that merciful 
approach which God makes to them. — Diversity of the 
divine dealings. — But this we meet everywhere. — Confi- 
dence in the divine goodness in dealing with each according 
to the light afforded. — His real character revealed. — Free- 
dom and responsibility never for an instant removed ... 33 



5 . CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 

PAGE 

Merciful to mankind, because merciful in himself. — Mercy and 
righteousness proclaimed in Scripture. — Goodness culmi- 
nates in mercifulness. — The one supreme standard of 
goodness. — What may one moral being do in determining 
the will of another? — A most remarkable " Non-Sequitur." 

— Infinite goodness must be shared by all ? — " Efficacious 
Grace." — Character and conduct, the condition of all good. 

— Exclusion from goodness, never by the mere will of him 
who is infinitely good. — Divine dealing with angels, and 
with man before the fall. — Dealing with the fallen ... 46 

CHAPTER III. 

THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 

The real and the whole character revealed in dealing with other 
moral beings, fallen or unfallen. — Why many hesitate to 
ascribe mercifulness to God in dealing with all his creatures. 

— In mercy righteousness declared, why not in justice, 
mercifulness ? — The problem of evil ; its proper place. — 
The divine character indicated in providence, as interpreted 
by our Lord. — Freedom and praiseworthiness of acts which 
proceed from the very nature of the being who acts. — 
Goodness apart from mercifulness not found on earth or in 
heaven. — The "must" and the "may"'' of the theologians. 

— Virtue beyond what the divine law requires ? — Preroga- 
tive determines mercy. — If so, why not justice ? — Actions 
attributable to persons, not to attributes. — The dominant 
attribute, always dominant. — " That love which moves the 

sun in heaven and all the stars " 62 



CHAPTER IV. 

MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 

Divine government righteous, beneficent, merciful. — In govern- 
ment by man, constitutional and legal provision for mercy. 
— No virtue too high to be exemplified by government. — 
Mercy a sovereign prerogative, not restricted. — Why rarely 
exercised. — The duty of the sovereign in the exercise of 
this prerogative, always specific and definite. — Divine 
mercy determined by the nature of God and the nature of 
the case 82 



CONTENTS. 



PART II. — MERCY BY SATISFACTION OF LAW. 
CHAPTER I. 

LAW PREVAILS. 

PAGE 

Law prevails everywhere. — This observed by all. — It is the 
will of the lawgiver, and he changeth not. — Reason for 
change cannot spring up " de novo''' — The evangelical doc- 
trine postulates the reign of law undisturbed. — It is free 
from the objection of "the philosophers." — Mercy shown, 
all the divine purposes accomplished without interference 
with law or with the free will of creatures . ■ 105 

CHAPTER II. 

SATISFACTION OF LAW. 

Perfect mercy, not by suspension or mitigation, but by satisfac- 
tion of law. — This illustrated by mercy or forgiveness 
among men. — The forgiveness of debt, the type of the for- 
giveness of sin. — All that is done by Christ, for, in, and by 
his redeemed, whatever else it be, is truly satisfaction of 
law. — This the only mercy needed. — This insures all con- 
ceivable good. — The end secured, by means of the atone- 
ment, and by efficacious grace, the satisfaction of the divine 
law 116 

CHAPTER III. 

MERCY AND JUSTICE. 

The " Fiat Justitia" — Redemption at once the utmost exemplifi- 
cation of justice and mercy. — Righteous government, hu- 
man or divine, not therefore without mercy. — The divine 
perfections shown forth in dealing with all moral being. — 
The imitation of Christ in his supreme work of mercy, 
required of all under the divine law 137 

CHAPTER IV. 

FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 

The study of mercy or forgiveness as observed among men. — 
Never without regard to the matter of satisfaction. — Minor 
objections considered ... 152 



IO CONTENTS. 



PART III. — MERCY IN ITS ADMINISTRATION. 
CHAPTER I. 

UNTRIED VIRTUE. 

PAGE 

Untried virtue purely imaginary. — In the genesis of virtue, 
trial. — In its nature it involves the not pleasing of self; the 
surrender of the will to the will of God. — Regard to the 
good of others. — Trial transformed into triumph, painless, 
joyous. — " Confirmation " is victory, by grace, gained and 
maintained 169 

CHAPTER II. 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 

A universe superior to the actual ? — One wherein neither sin 
nor suffering entered or could enter. — A second choice, 
one in which all shall, in the end, be restored. — A third- 
rate universe in which few shall be lost. — The fallacy, infi- 
nite goodness must be shared by all. — To be merciful 
is to insure the acceptance of mercy. — Creatures endowed 
with free will, and not the Creator who endowed them, re- 
sponsible. — The determinative choice, blameworthy or 
praiseworthy. — Human responsibility. — Passive in begin- 
ning to live ? — Power or authority leave the will uninvaded. 

— Made willing by the word. — Will to be insured against 
the possibility of error must be guided by perfect, that is, 
by infinite knowledge. — No finite will can be thus guided 
and determined. — " Confirmation," therefore, can be only 
by grace. — With us only by covenant relation to the 
glorious Lord. — Scripture plainly teaches this. — No act 
good in itself, or apart from good reasons and right ends. 

— To " make willing," therefore, is to cause to perceive and 
act from good reasons and right ends. — God's will, in any 
way made known, we can be assured is supported by infi- 
nite reasons. — Without a divine commandment, an intima- 
tion in some way of the divine will, there can be no more 
than a mere probability of wise and right choice and action, 1S2 



CONTENTS. I I 

CHAPTER III. 

PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 

PAGE 

The inscrutable may be the undeniable. — Divine determina- 
tions could not but seem to us predeterminations. — Man 
predetermines always according to the measure of his 
knowledge. — Rewards and punishments ; when provided ? 
— Emergencies. — Predeterminations in no way affect man's 
freedom or responsibility. — Nothing gained by assuming 
that divine decisions are reserved. — We have to do with a 
being who is omnipresent in the eternity, "even as he is 
omnipresent in the immensity 208 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 

All foreordained, yet provision for the answer of prayer. — " Be- 
fore they call I will answer." — No need for a special phi- 
losophy. — Whatsoever shall be was provided for. — This 
includes every prayer. God " inhabiteth eternity," he is 
always present to all that is in eternity, as he is ever present 
to all that is in space. — This, not by perception. — Know- 
eth, not by perception, but by his presence unto or in the 
things or events known. — A type of the way in which God 
knoweth. — Mercies in answer to prayer. — Providence a 
perpetual revelation 221 



MERCY 



IN THE 



Divine Government, 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 

THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 

The supreme example of goodness in the form 
of mercy as shown us in Christ, is an example and 
instance of goodness of which every other is a type 
and pattern. The greatest instance of goodness 
hath in it no element that is wholly wanting in the 
least instance. A drop of water from the sea lacks 
no one element that is to be found in the vast waters 
of the globe. A ray of light, the very slenderest, 
lacks no one element or property of that flood of 
light which fills interstellar space. 

1. Goodness is one and the same in all beings, 
from the least to the greatest. 

2. It is characteristic of all goodness that it 
terminates not on self, but on other beings. 

13 



14 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

3. The character and conduct of the M 6>M<?r 
beings" determines the form of the goodness. 

4. Violators of law are the ones, the only ones 
toward whom goodness can take the form of mercy 
true and -proper. 

5. Mercy consists in delivering from condem- 
nation, and at the same time restoring to a state of 
righteousness or of perfect conformity to law. 

6. Perfect mercy, the mercy needed, God alone 
can give; for he only — and, so far as we can 
judge, he only by the incarnation — could provide 
for the satisfaction of law and for the restoration of 
the fallen. This is alpha and omega, beginning 
and end of God's mercy to man. To this nothing 
could be imagined to be added. 

7. In the very nature of the case mercy consists 
in the satisfaction of law ; for, when any being is 
able to render full and perfect satisfaction to that 
whole law under which he is, all conceivable good 
is assured to him by the very nature of law, and by 
the very character of God, and this as his right and 
due. 

8. That the mercy -we may show to our fellow- 
men cannot be really like that which God showeth 
to us, must not be assumed. For any instance of 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 1 5 

the many ten thousands of merciful or charitable 
deeds which men are wont to perform, carefully 
studied, thoroughly analyzed, will yield, though 
in faint, infinitesimal proportion, the elements com- 
mon to all mercy. 

Thy neighbor lacketh food for his household, fuel 
and clothing to defend from the fierce wintry blast ; 
assuredly because somewhere in the past law has 
been violated. What is furnished, then, is with the 
view of relieving him from a portion of that aggre- 
gate of evil which threatens him, or is coming on 
him, by reason of the onward movement of law, or 
because there is law in the universe, and law that 
cannot be mocked. Now, pray, go on in that very 
direction in which thou hast taken one step. Do 
for thy suffering neighbor in all things and for all 
time what thou hast done in one small matter and 
for a very short time. Come between him and all 
the consequences of violated law, furnish him all 
that he needs, all strength and grace, so that in 
nothing shall he come short of conformity to law 
— thou art then his saviour. Thou shalt then 
have shown him all the mercy it is possible he could 
receive. His cup then runneth over. 

Consider that this thy act of mercy could not but 



l6 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

cost thee the surrender of that which was thine. 
Thou didst necessarily suffer the loss of that which 
was thine, and which was precious ; for, if it were 
not thine, or were not precious, there had been no 
mercy in the transaction. " Little or no suffering," 
it may be said, because thou didst give of thine 
abundance. If little suffering, then little mercy; if 
no suffering, then no mercy. Great mercy, utmost 
mercy — utmost possible to thee, if not utmost pos- 
sible to be shown unto him — it could have been 
only if the surrender of thine own had been com- 
plete. Great or perfect mercy it could have been 
only provided thou hadst been rich — rich, not in 
goods and gold, but rich in all heroic and glorious 
virtues and powers, aye, rich in life ; and hadst thou 
given all, even life itself; that is, hadst thou had a 
life with " power to lay it down and take it again," l 
and hadst thou freely laid it down and taken it 
again for him, that he might not perish. 

That this view can be fully sustained, that it can 
be demonstrated clearly to the satisfaction of any 
candid reasoner, so that it shall be to him no less 
clear than the multiplication table itself, I do not 
hesitate to affirm. The mighty significance of this 

1 John x. : 18. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 17 

no one can fail to see. Its bearing upon the great 
questions so long in debate, but which seem in these 
later days to come with special prominence before 
the whole world, is most manifest. For if all mercy 
be, and can be clearly shown to be, by satisfaction 
of law, no vestige of standing-ground is left for 
any but the purely evangelical or orthodox view 
of Christ's great redemptive work. The new the- 
ology, then, is in the face of the whole teaching of 
human history, as well as in the face of the whole 
volume of revelation as it has been understood in 
all the ages. And it is surely worthy of note, it 
surely ought to "give pause" to the advanced, and 
advancing, theologian to consider that sceptics un- 
derstand the Bible to teach the system of doctrine 
known as evangelical or orthodox — the substitu- 
tionary sufferings of Christ — and not anyone of 
the modifications or diluted theories of the atone- 
ment. 

Sheer above all other considerations rises the joy 
and gladness of the clear discovery that goodness 
is one ; and that God calleth us to be, now and 
here, imitators of him ; imitators of him in his 
supreme self-manifestation, in his grace to us. As 
interpreted by the angels, the " multitude of the 



1 8 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

heavenly host" 1 Christ's redemptive work, the su- 
preme instance and example of goodness, teaches 
us, and doubtless all moral beings, a profound les- 
son regarding the very nature of virtue or goodness 
— its relation to all being, created or Uncreated. 

Whatsoever is good, every instance and example 
of what is right, of what ought to be done, even 
the very least, hath for its end and aim even that 
same which was the end and aim of God's one 
supreme example, the redemptive work of Christ ; 
that is, ^glory to God and good-will" 2 to creat- 
ures. The vision of this uplifts, and fills with 
rapturous joy. Not on self terminates any act of 
virtue ; not on few ; not on many ; not on creatures. 
No ; it relateth to all being. And first of all to 
Him who is more and nearer and worthier, infi- 
nitely, than are any or all created beings. And 
goodness which acts God-ward takes the form of 
praise, service, worship, not because goodness 
acting God-ward is in itself different from good- 
ness acting man-ward, or in any other direction, 
or toward anything that lives, any being that can 
be blest or made to enjoy, or can be an object of 
goodness, — but because of the nature and charac- 

1 Luke ii. : 13. 2 Luke 11. : 14. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 19 

ter of Him toward whom it goeth forth. Love to 
God is not separable in kind from love to man, as 
we are explicitly taught. Goodness — itself ever 
strictly, purely one and the same — takes form 
always according to the object unto which it 
addresses itself. Carry this up to the supreme 
question of the goodness of God in dealing with 
his creatures. Why must we hesitate? If our 
goodness necessarily, of itself, instantly taketh 
form which is determined solely by the object 
toward which it is addressed, why should we at all 
hesitate to regard this as the law of the going 
forth of all goodness f Why should we be at all 
perplexed at the exemplification of this in the out- 
going and results of even infinite goodness in deal- 
ing with moral beings? 

And may not we in this way get some gleam of 
light as we contemplate the diversity of the divine 
dealings with moral beings? May we not say that 
what the greatest culprits experience is what pro- 
ceeds from goodness — and this not because good- 
ness is hindered from its full manifestation of itself 
by reason of justice — and is terrible only because 
of the character and estate of those toward whom 
goodness is addressed? 



20 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

" Clouds and darkness are round about him : 
righteousness and judgment the habitation of his 
throne." 1 " God is light, and in him is no dark- 
ness at all." 2 Infinite goodness, not discrimina- 
tive? but bestowed irrespective of character or 
conduct? i.e. Promises and blessings to " him that 
cometh," 3 and to him that cometh not? Mercy 
" compass round him that trusteth ?" 4 — and him 
that trusteth not? It is unscriptural, irrational, 
impossible. Mercy for "the chief of sinners?" 
Yes ; but only if the chief of sinners be truly 
penitent. "His penitence of grace?" Yes; yet 
he, the chief of sinners, must be, in point of fact, 
himself penitent ; and his being so, — even though 
it be of grace, — is praiseworthy, is rewardable, is 
rewarded. He, though operated on, influenced to 
the utmost by grace, is yet pleasing to God, and 
is rewarded; "returns to his house justified.'' 
Grace is not a device for dispensing with virtue in 
creatures. Grace must not be thought to render 
virtue impossible. Grace awakens, incites to ac- 
tivity, encourages from first to last — at first quite 
as well as afterwards ; at first quite as plainly as at 

1 Ps. xcvu. : 2. ! John vi. : 37. ''Luke xviii. : 14. 

2 I. John 1. : 5. 4 Ps. xxxn. : 10. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 21 

last — real and proper acts of virtue, praiseworthy 
and rewardable. 

Not the dealings of Supreme Goodness, then, 
with creatures capable of sin and of virtue, but 
the existence of beings thus endowed and respon- 
sible is the real enigma, the hard problem. Creat- 
ures of this character existing, could not be wisely 
or rightly dealt with otherwise. Divine goodness 
could take no other form when dealing with beings 
thus constituted and thus acting. It is not justice, 
but God, infinite in all perfections, who condemns 
the wicked, the impenitent. There is, then, I 
submit, no question but this : How could it be 
that Infinite Goodness should call into being the 
universe which is? The other questions resolve 
themselves into this one ; and face to face with this 
one we must all stand, — unless we be content to 
think fitfully and fragmentarily and flippantly all 
our lives. And let no one hastily affirm that there 
is no gain in the resolution of all to this one final 
mystery. Is it no gain to see clearly that the 
universe, being constituted as it is, could be gov- 
erned no otherwise than it is, even by any possible 
or imaginable goodness in the Supreme Ruler? 
Besides, what but mystery could be expected when 



2 2 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

we come to the question, " What sort of universe 
were the best?" " With whom took he counsel or 
who instructed him?" 1 " Where wast thou when 
I laid the foundations f " 2 

The one mystery, the weightiest burden, which 
rests upon the spirit of man, confronted as he is 
with the vast aggregate of suffering in this life — 
foreshadowing as it does the possible extent and 
duration of suffering hereafter — is the thought 
that in dealing with the sufferers divine goodness 
does not seem to have shone forth in all its fulness. 
For, without some rational view — something ap- 
proaching an explanation — it is well-nigh impos- 
sible to accept at their full value, and in their 
plain import, the words of Scripture : " The Lord 
is good to all: his tender mercies are over all 
his works" 2 

But if, in the nature of the case, goodness, 
whether finite or infinite, must always take form 
according to the character and conduct of the 
object of goodness — whatever perplexity may 
arise from the existence, the extent or the dura- 
tion of suffering — no shadow, no film of cloud 
remains to obscure the glory and brightness of 

1 Is. xl. : 14. 2 Job xxxviii. : 4. 3 Ps. cxlv. : 9. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 23 

Divine Goodness. It is no small gain to see that 
it is Infinite Goodness that is dealing with all ; and 
that the difference of those dealings is owing to the 
character and conduct of those dealt with. 

God is in this, as in all his ways 5 sovereign. 
" He giveth not account of any of his matters." l 
He " hath mercy on whom he will have mercy." 2 
Yet man is ever held answerable — and at the peril 
of all hope — for his response to whatsoever 
God in his sovereignty doeth for or unto him. 
" Salvation is of the Lord." 3 Yet never except 
by concurrent praiseworthy choice and act on the 
part of him who is saved. And this praiseworthy 
choice and act must not be imagined to be (a) 
either not of him who is saved (b) or after ^ but 
when grace is put forth. For no one is made will- 
ing who does not himself will. No one is made 
willing who does not will synchronously with that 
agency which maketh him willing. The glory of 
that efficacious grace which maketh any one will- 
ing, is that he upon whom such grace operates 
himself doth both "will" and "do." 4 Divine 
sovereignty in this whole matter is so clearly 

'Job xxxiii. : 13. 3 Jonah 11. : 9. 

2 Rom. ix. : 18. 4 Phil. 11. : 13. 



24 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

taught, doctrinally and historically, in scripture, so 
abundantly confirmed and illustrated in the whole 
history of redemption, and withal, so in accordance 
with God's way in. all his works, in the whole 
course of his providence, that it never should be 
for a moment questioned or lost sight of. And all 
attempts to frame our theology so as to relieve our 
minds from the awe-inspiring, face-to-face view of 
divine sovereignty, are alike presumptuous, un- 
scriptural, and vain. 

But while setting before us divine sovereignty, 
does not the Bible from beginning to end, and with 
equal emphasis, teach and press upon all, man's 
responsibility, ever setting before him " the way of 
life and the way of death " ; J and man's responsi- 
bility in the very matter of that obedience to the 
divine commandment, which is essential to sal- 
vation? " This is his commandment that ye 
believe." 2 And by what subtle process of reason- 
ing can praiseworthiness and rewardableness be 
wholly taken from the first act of obedience, an act 
of obedience, too, which, in the nature of the case, 
is determinative of destiny? Language could not 
more clearly assert the blameworthiness of the 

1 Jer. xxi. : 8. 2 1. John ill. : 23. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 25 

rejecters of the mercy of God as it is offered to 
man, the blameworthiness of those " who obey not 
the gospel." ' Nor could there be more hearty 
commendation of those who obey, and accept 
divine grace. 

Let it be clearly seen that every moral being in 
the universe is always clothed with real and un- 
abated responsibility, — a responsibility all his 
own, shared by no being created or Uncreated — 
and that Infinite Goodness ever deals with each 
according to his free choice and act in the exercise 
of this responsibility — and let it not be overlooked 
that in grace this responsibility is not abridged or 
abated but increased and intensified — then man's 
present duty is pressed home upon him with utmost 
solemnity ; and God's dealing with man, so far as 
this matter is concerned, is not at all mysterious or 
appalling. 

The greatness of God and the littleness of man, 
it is w 7 ell to keep ever in view. No one can be too 
much impressed with the infinite disparity. But if 
any one allow himself to fall from the clear recog- 
nition of man's freedom of will, man's being a 
moral person, by reason of his distance from the 

»II. Thess. 1.: 8. 



20 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Supreme, the Infinite, he is simply befogged. A 
moral person of the feeblest powers is a moral 
person as truly as one of the greatest. The small- 
ness of a globe does not rob it of its character as a 
globe. The smallest globe lacks no property that 
pertains to the largest. 

No error has been more prevalent or more fatal 
than the virtual denial of man's responsibility. 
The prevailing view of the average worldling is, 
that God our Creator, is in reality responsible for 
our well-being. The multitudes who neglect " the 
Great Salvation " ! it will ever be found have this 
for their abiding belief: "God made us and placed 
us in this world surrounded as we are with tempta- 
tions ; and he will see to it that all shall be well 
with us in the end.'" And even the vast majority 
of those who give some attention to religion, have 
no proper sense of man's being in reality answer- 
able to God, who sets before every one " life and 
good, and death and evil." 2 The full and clear 
view of this is seen only in the case of those who 
experience the great awakening. Besides this, 
multitudes holding to the scriptural doctrine of 
divine decrees and election, allow these to come 

1 Heb. II. : 3. 2 Deut. xxx. : 15. 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 2*] 

between man and God, so that they never get a 
true view of man's accountability ; failing to see 
that there is no doctrine of the Bible which affords 
to man the slightest protection from the rays of 
the Sun of God's Holy Law, a Sun never for a 
moment eclipsed. No film of cloud intercepts his 
rays. This sky is always clear. This was so in 
man's estate of innocence. This is true of man 
under the whole dispensation of grace. This is 
not only true of all to whom the gospel comes ; 
it is true of the heathen who have not the gospel, 
for even they are " without excuse." 1 

If we ask why there is this failure on the part 
of so many, to realize the solemn truth regarding 
man's responsibility, the answer is at hand — Man 
simply abuses the divine mercy, despises "the 
riches of his goodness," 2 not considering that all 
God has done in making man what he is, and 
placing him where he is, so far from detract- 
ing from, mightly increases his responsibility. 
"What could have been done more to my vine- 
yard, that I have not done in it?" 3 That God 
should in reality hold man answerable, is in the 
estimation of many, so mysterious, so wonderful as 

1 Rom. i. : 20. 2 Rom. 11. : 4. 3 Is. v. : 4. 



28 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

to be incredible. But the wonder, the mystery, 
quite disappears whensoever one gets from under 
the clouds and mists which prevail — clouds and 
mists which too often gather and linger about 
some of the grandest and highest mountains in the 
whole range of revealed truth. 

Perhaps the one view most difficult to gain a 
clear sight of, is the sejyai'ateness and loneliness of 
every moral being, from the least to the greatest. 
Dim consciousness of this comes at times even to 
a little child. But its profound significance few 
fairly behold. "I, now and forever separate from 
all else that is; I, a person — with all reverence, 
yet with all confidence — quite as truly as God 
himself — I, made in his image and after his like- 
ness, clean and clear now and forever separated 
from, and not only uninvaded but uninvadable by 
the highest created beings — I, having to do with, 
and answerable to the King of the Universe, and 
only to any other because first unto him." And 
whoso thus " comes to himself" can hardly fail to 
have some promptings to " arise and go to his 
father." For he who learns to say " I," cannot 
stop till he has said "thou." And what "thou" 
can fill the place, can come into the holy of holies, 



THE SUPREME EXAMPLE. 29 

the heart of hearts, can be to me all that I need, 
all that I crave? One by one, or in troops let 
them pass ; the great and the small ; I who am so 
little, need more, seek more than they can give, j 
more than they are. The "Thou" every soul 
searcheth for, " feeleth after," 1 is none other than 
the Infinite One. But One — "Whom have I in 
heaven but Thee " 2 — Each thinking being, himself 
one, for one Friend he pineth and searcheth ever, 
whether wisely and successfully or foolishly and 
in vain. In this search whatsoever he beholdeth, 
ever speaketh of the way : for of the One Infinite 
Maker and Ruler, all that is made and that is 
ruled is witness. 

For himself the Creator made man. In his 
own image and after his own likeness — and for 
himself — the Creator made man. Therefore, 
with man — near to him — in him — in his heart, 
no other can be. Alone, — and burdened more 
and more with the sense of his loneliness — must 
he be till he return to him from whom he has 
wandered. The one Way of Return to God, it is 
the burden of Holy Scripture to reveal. It is but 
the acceptance of divine goodness in the form of 
mercy as offered in the gospel. 

1 Acts xvii. : 27. 2 Ps. lxxiii. : 25. 



PART I 



MERCY 



IN 



Character and Government. 



31 



CHAPTER I. 

MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 

All who believe in the existence of One Supreme 
Being, the Creator and Ruler of all, believe him 
to be a Being infinite in all perfections, infinite 
in goodness : and though refusing to accept any 
writing as a revelation, they cannot but know that 
the Supreme Being who rules this world, in ten 
thousand ways signifies his goodness in the form of 
free unmerited favors and blessings ; cannot but 
know that his goodness does not consist in his 
being merely just ; for they not only see that man 
is not punished as he deserves, but is compassed 
round with innumerable and priceless blessings. 
All men, therefore, whether they accept or reject 
the Bible, must agree in ascribing mercifulness to 
the Being who rules this world. 

But all who accept Divine Revelation hold that 
the great mercy shown to mankind in the mission 



34 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and work of Christ, is mercy which proceeds from 
the infinite goodness of God. It ought then to be 
clearly seen that there is this common ground on 
which all men — except atheists — can meet : viz. : 
that mercifulness is characteristic of the Divine 
Being — certainly in his dealings with our race. 

To the redeemed of mankind he shows himself 
merciful, most merciful : but to all mankind, to the 
race as such, in his dealings with them from first 
to last he shows himself not merely as a God of 
justice but as a God of mercy. This is abundantly 
declared throughout the word of Revelation. " The 
Lord is good to all : his mercy is over all his 
works." 1 "Whoso is wise and will observe these 
things" — the whole course of providence as it is 
described in the Psalm — " even they shall under- 
stand the loving kindness of the Lord." 2 It must 
never be forgotten that with the race of mankind, 
with each individual of the race God deals consist- 
ently with his proclaimed character; "the Lord, 
the Lord God merciful and gracious." 3 

Not only unto the redeemed but unto all to whom 
the offer of the gospel is made he shows himself 
most merciful. For no one of these shall be con- 

1 Ps. CXLV. : 9. ' 2 Ps. cvn. : 43. 3 Ex. xxxiv. : 6. 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 35 

demned and banished from the presence of the 
Lord, merely on the ground that he " sinned in 
Adam and fell with him in his first transgression;" 
or merely on the ground of his being one of the 
lapsed race of mankind ; nor will he be condemned 
for any one or for all his (other) actual transgres- 
sions : but for his refusal to accept the offered 
mercy. "This is the condemnation that light is 
come into the world and men loved darkness rather 
than light." x To think otherwise is to misinterpret 
the offer of the gospel ; for if this offer be made in 
good faith it is one in which is expressed and set 
forth the infinite mercifulness of God. 

All those who reject the gospel offer, then, are 
under condemnation not merely because they sinned 
against a righteous God — since all such sins, 
original or actual, might have been forgiven — but 
because they sinned against a most merciful God 
offering to them salvation and entreating them to 
accept pardon, peace and life eternal. So even the 
sufferings of the impenitent shall be a monument 
not only to the justice, but to the mercifulness of 
God; since the formal, exact, determinative indict- 
ment on which their condemnation hinged was 

1 John in. : 19. 



1,6 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

their rejection of divine mercy offered to them — 
a monument, the complement of that other radiant 
and glorious, in the world of light. Dark and 
awful as may be the shadows and clouds which 
gather around it, these can never hide from the in- 
telligent universe its true significance ; for the fact 
that it commemorates the rejection of mercy, 
detracts nothing from its significance as commemo- 
rative of the existence, the extent, the infinitude of 
that mercy which was rejected. Indeed the differ- 
ence between that monument which shines in 
heavenly glory and around which gather the blood- 
washed throng of the redeemed who " sing of the 
mercies of the Lord forever ; " l and that other 
monument surrouded by the clouds of vengeance 
under which wail all the kindreds of the earth 
who "have pierced him," 2 who have rejected 
his mercy, is simply this : the one commemorates 
mercy accepted, the other mercy rejected. It 
would be a gross misconception to make the rejec- 
tion of offered mercy detract anything from the 
merciful character of him who offers it. This 
rejection casts not a film of a shadow upon that 
glorious attribute, the mercy of God. Indeed, 

1 Ps. lxxxix. : i. 2 Rev. I. : 7. 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 2>1 

what could bring out more wonderfully the riches 
and fulness of that mercy than the patience and 
long-suffering of him who " waits to be gracious," ' 
who " stands at the door and knocks," 2 who pleads 
with sinners, saying, "Why will ye die?" 3 " I 
have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." 4 
" How often would I have gathered thy children 
together." 3 

To judge otherwise — to regard the rejection of 
God's mercy as something that obscures the merci- 
fulness of him who makes the offer — we must 
either fail to regard the offer as genuine and in 
good faith, or hold that the responsibility for the 
result is upon him who makes the offer, and not 
upon him to whom it is made. 

I am aware that we are thus brought to a pro- 
found question : The question of the relation of 
the will of man to the power and grace of God. 
But let it be remembered that the worst of all 
attempts at solution, is that one which makes the 
great offer of the gospel a mere feint, and at the 
same time reduces to zero both will and responsi- 
bility in the creature. But just this easy solution 

1 Is. xxx. : 18. 3 Jer. xxvn. : 13. 3 Matt. xxm. : 37. 

2 Rev. in. : 20. 4 Ezek. xvm. : 32. 



38 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

many good men adopt, seemingly unconscious of 
the consequences to which it inevitably leads. 

How is the Mercifulness of God's Qharacter shown 
in the case of all those who have never heard the 
Gospel f 

All men live " under a dispensation of mercy." 
The race of mankind was spared because God 
was merciful, most merciful. Indeed the genera- 
tion of mankind now living on earth owe their 
very existence to the intervention of Christ ; for 
had not God so loved the world that he gave his 
Son, 1 i.e., had there been no delay in the execu- 
tion of the sentence, whatever might have been, 
surely the prosperity of Adam would not have 
been in the enjoyment of " life and breath and all 
things," 2 as they now are. The race was spared 
because of God's mercy in Christ. 

All men in addition to experiencing the sparing 
mercy of God in that there is, because of the great 
atonement, delay in the execution of deserved pen- 
alty, experience also day by day and throughout 
their whole lives the mercy of God in the countless 
and priceless gifts and blessings of his providence. 

'John in. : 16. 2 Acts xvn. : 25. 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 39 

Indeed, all that he does unto them he does consis- 
tently with his character as most merciful. So that 
without a word of divine revelation, all may know, 
cannot but know, that the Supreme Being who 
deals with them is longsufFering, is good and 
gracious, does not now strictly and rigidly inflict 
deserved penalty, but " waits to be gracious." l 

If we ask the question, on what grounds shall 
they be judged who have never heard the gospel, 
it is every way more reasonable to answer : "They 
shall be judged for the manner in which they 
respond to that merciful approach which God 
makes to them in his providence, — in all his deal- 
ings with them, — even as all gospel hearers shall 
be judged for the manner in which they respond to 
that merciful approach which God makes to them 
through the gospel," than to answer: ',' They shall 
be dealt with on the grounds of bare and mere 
justice." It must be considered that though the 
mercy of God shines forth through the proclaimed 
gospel, it also shines forth in the whole course of 
his dealings with mankind. In fact the Scripture 
itself, when it declares to us the mercifulness of 
God, ever points us to the proof of this as seen in 

1 Is. xxx. : 18. 



4-0 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

his providence. It is, then, to be assumed that all 
men will be dealt with on the ground of that 
special manifestation of mercy — be it what it may 
— which they have actually enjoyed. Accepting 
this view, have we not a simple, clear, consistent 
principle on which all mankind are dealt with, a 
principle which sets forth the excellence of the 
divine character as most merciful as well as most 
righteous ? 

We may thus reverently commit this whole mat- 
ter to him whom we know to be most merciful, 
assured that in dealing with those who have the 
least light he will deal on the same principle as 
with those who have the most light. If this should 
lead us to the entertaining of the question, " How 
small a measure of light regarding the merciful 
character of God may possibly be so responded 
unto as to admit to a share in that mercy ? " or to 
the question, " What is the true significance of 
that assurance which we have in the inspired 
word, ' Beaten with few stripes ' " ; l let no devout 
soul be disturbed. Indeed those who have the 
clearest and largest view of the mercifulness of 
God to themselves, can with utmost confidence rest 

1 Lu. xn. : 48. 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 41 

in the assurance that he, in dealing with others of 
their race, deals as a most merciful God ; and that 
the sum total of his dealings with others, whatever 
be the character and conduct of those dealt with, 
and whatever be the result, whatever be their 
destiny, will redound to the honor and praise of 
God not merely as a God of justice but as a God 
of mercy. 

Sovereignty shown in dealing with Mankind, as 
everyzvhere else in the Works and Ways of God. 

There is indeed in the Lord's dealings with the 
individuals of our race the utmost variety. As 
to their endowments, their environment and their 
destiny, so far from being alike, there seems to be 
the utmost disparity. That some should be, as we 
esteem it, in the enjoyment of the richest and 
highest privileges, while others are left in destitu- 
tion and extreme privation, is a matter we cannot 
contemplate without wonder and awe. Why this 
should be, what reasons justify this, we cannot 
hope to ascertain. But we can see that this is in 
accordance with God's method in all his works 
and ways. Everywhere we learn that the utmost 
variety is the rule*. Indeed this is the clearly 



42 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

marked distinction between the works of God and 
the works of man. In the works of God a com- 
mon type with endless variations, by which indi- 
viduality is ensured, is the rule. This is true not 
only of the individuals of the race of mankind, 
whether regarded physically, intellectually or mor- 
ally ; it is even true of the individual trees of the 
forest ; true of the individual leaves of the forest. 
It is not for us to say what transcendent and glori- 
ous results are secured by the universality of this 
marvelous law — uniformity of type with individual 
variations. If rigid adherence to this law, which 
excites in us so much wonder, interest and delight, 
necessitate certain astounding departures from 
what we would have judged to be highest and 
best, it is not for us to complain ; since we know 
not the ends which are thus attained and which 
could not otherwise be reached. 

If we will but carefully consider that in dealing 
with each individual — the least favored as well as 
the most highly favored — all the perfections of 
the Divine Being are fully exercised; all the cir- 
cumstances of each individual fully taken into 
account, we shall have no difficulty in regard to 
the divine dealings with one # or with the other. 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 43 

The Esquimaux in his snow-hut, destitute of all 
that the civilized and enlightened man holds dear, 
is under the care of Him whose tender mercies are 
over all ; of Him who is no respecter of persons ; 
of Him who is able to deal with each in a way 
consistent with his own real and whole character 
as merciful and gracious. 

This law of endless variety is one which in 
many ways provides for the exercise of the best 
powers 6f the' individual, and the maintaining of 
relations of mutual helpfulness. " Hath not the 
potter power over the clay?" 1 is a doctrine which 
none but devout and reverent souls can accept. 
Man imagines himself some way exalted above, or 
exempt from, those laws which he cannot but see 
do prevail in all departments of the universe be- 
neath him. To be "the clay" in the" hand of 
" the potter," to be wholly at the disposal of the 
Supreme Being, to be " for his glory," and to be 
dealt with in all things according to his predeter- 
mined will — " the counsel of his will " 2 — this, the 
carnal mind cannot abide ; but this, devout and 
trustful ones accept with rapture as the best that 
could be. To this no man cometh save by the 

1 Rom. ix. : 21. 2 Eph. 1. : 11. 



44 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

grace of God. It is a faith which renders to God 
the highest tribute possible. It is the supreme 
manifestation of man's confidence in the wisdom, 
power and goodness of God. But in vain will any 
one hope to gain that solution of this question 
which will give peace and rest to the troubled soul, 
otherwise than by the personal knowledge and 
experience of the mercifulness of God to himself. 
Then only is he prepared to trust, to rest in the 
assurance that the same being who is merciful to 
him, will vindicate to all the universe his own real 
character, even his infinite goodness in his deal- 
ings with the race, and with each individual of the 
race, and this, whatsoever the result may be. 
Without at all assuming to enter the arcana, the 
holy of holies, which God claims for himself, with- 
out endeavoring in any way to get even a glimpse 
of what is done in the inner chambers of the heart 
either of the saved or of the lost — either of Judas 
or of John — in that supreme crisis in which des- 
tiny is determined — and determined by a single 
act of choice — we may, nay, we must accept it — 
unless we set ourselves against the heavens — that 
whatsoever God doeth in the one case or in the 
other, leaves those with whom he deals free and 



MERCIFUL TO MANKIND. 45 

also responsible ; accept it also, that God's real 
and whole character, his character as a God of 
mercy as well as of justice, will be fully, gloriously 
vindicated; and this, wholly irrespective of the 
issue, the result, the direful doom, or glorious 
destiny of any of those with whom he deals. 



CHAPTER II. 

MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 

If God is merciful to the redeemed of mankind, 
if he is merciful in his dealings with the race of 
mankind, — if the mercifulness of his character 
shall shine forth gloriously to all eternity in the 
blessedness of the saved ; and if even the condem- 
nation of the unsaved, since it is specifically and 
formally on the ground of the rejection of offered 
mercy, shall also be an enduring monument to the 
mercifulness of his character — let it be considered 
that this is true because he is merciful in himself. 

This he explicitly and solemnly proclaims in his 
word: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and 
gracious." 1 " Let him that glorieth glory in this, 
that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am 
the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judg- 
ment, and righteousness in the earth : for in these 

1 Ex. xxxiv. : 6. 
46 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 47 

things I delight, saith the Lord." 1 In these and 
like portions of Scripture, it is the mercifulness of 
God in himself, and not merely his mercifulness to 
us, that is asserted and proclaimed. Indeed it is 
by the acceptance of the faith that God is in him- 
self a merciful Being — even as this his real char- 
acter is revealed to us in his providence as well as 
proclaimed in his word — that we rise to the faith, 
the expectation, the joyous assurance, that he will 
be merciful to us. For when Christ would inspire 
confidence in the care, love, and tender mercy of 
God, he ever appealed to the abounding proofs of 
his kindness and goodness, as these proofs are set 
before all, in the order of nature and in the course 
of providence, not only in dealing with mankind, 
but in providing for the beasts of the field and the 
fowls of the air. 

As we have seen, the dealings of God with the 
race of mankind have been all under a dispensa- 
tion of mercy. These dealings as they are and 
shall be contemplated in the eternal ages, shall 
testify not simply to the fact that God was merciful 
to the race of mankind, but that he is in himself, 
essentially, a merciful, a most merciful as well as 

J Jer. ix. : 24. 



48 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

a most righteous Being. And let it not be thought 
that God's being most righteous must, in the nature 
of the case, detract from the mercifulness of his 
character, or limit or restrict the mercifulness of 
his dealings with moral beings. For it is not 
merely true that no being can be merciful who is 
not also just ; but it is true that no being can show 
mercy except at the same time and in the same act 
he also show himself righteous. Favor shown to 
the needy and the suffering contrary to righteous- 
ness, or in disregard of righteousness, is not 
mercy, is not praiseworthy, is not required, but 
forbidden by the law of God. 

The doctrine of divine mercy is in all the Script- 
ure marvelously safeguarded by the most distinct 
and startling declarations of the Lord's righteous- 
ness. " The Lord merciful and gracious " — is the 
Lord " who will by no means clear the guilty." 
The Christ who from Mount Olivet 4 ' weeps over 
the city," saying, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together," 
— is the Christ who exclaims, " Behold your house 
is left unto you desolate" 

Mercy thus set forth is heaven high above that 
which man fondly imagines to be the mercy he 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 49 

needs. Righteousness instead of receding, weak- 
ening or wavering, most gloriously and fully 
asserts itself in the transaction by which mercy is 
afforded to man. God's mercy is irradiated, is all 
aglow with his righteousness. This it is which 
makes it precious. This it is which makes it in 
truth mercy at all. The element, righteousness, 
taken from mercy, it is no more mercy ; its glory 
is departed. Language could not more strongly 
set forth this. Christ is called "The Lord our 
righteousness." 1 Grace reigns "through right- 
eousness." 2 " For therein " — that is in the " gos- 
pel " — " is the righteousness of God revealed from 
faith to faith." 3 "To declare his righteousness 
for the remission of sins." " To declare at this 
time his righteousness." Whoso, then, dreams of 
mercy, which simply "steals a march" upon 
righteousness, does but dream a vain dream from 
which there must come, sometime, a great awaken- 
ing. Grace otherwise than " through righteous- 
ness " is not grace at all. We shall have day 
without the sun, sooner than salvation without 
righteousness. 

The Lord, as he is revealed to us in his word 

1 Jer. xxiii. : 6. 2 Rom. v. : 21. 3 Rom. 1. : 17. 



50 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and in his work — and as in both of these he 
"declares his righteousness" — is revealed to us 
as merciful in himself. 

But following a different line of thought we shall 
be led to this same conclusion. Goodness in its 
very nature, in its highest manifestation, culmi- 
nates in mercifulness. It could culminate in nothing 
else. The foundation of a pyramid determines 
the height to which it must rise. Goodness, per- 
fection, in a moral being great or small, finite or 
infinite, is a pyramid the predetermined apex of 
which can be nothing less or lower than mercy. 
All the rays of sunlight combined amount to pure 
white light. All the elements of a perfect char- 
acter combined and in utmost activity, result in the 
white light of pure mercy. For the same reason 
that we call no one of our fellowmen good who 
is simply just, who in dealing with his fellowmen 
stops short at the line of even and exact justice ; 
are we forbidden to assume that there can be any 
being really good who in dealing with other 
beings, with any other being, stops short at the 
line of bare and mere justice.* How then dare 

* " What lack I jet?" is a question which, though it were 
asked by one who had in reality never deviated from the line of 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 5 1 

we assume that the one Being who alone is good, 
who is infinitely good, and who requires merciful- 
ness of all, does in any case deal with other beings 
on the ground of bare and mere and exact justice ; 
so that they might truly say in eternity, "We 
know nothing of any goodness of God save that he 
is a God of justice ; toward us no higher phase of 
his character has ever been turned?" (Unques- 
tionably no one of our race shall be able to say 
this.) To assume this is to make a standard of 
goodness that is purely imaginary ; one that the 
moral sense wherewith man is endowed by his 
Creator cannot rest in, or regard as the supreme 
and universal standard ; a standard lower than 
that one which God ever holds up before man in 
his word and by his example : " Be ye perfect as 
your Father in heaven is perfect." 1 "Be ye 
merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful." 2 

But why should we imagine that the Divine 
Being deals in strict and mere justice with any of 
his creatures? We have indeed been taught by 
certain theologians that God zs, by the necessities 

exact justice, should ever find its true answer in the words : " If 
thou wilt be perfect go and sell all," — i.e. : Be thou merciful. 

x Matt. v. : 48. 2 Lu. VT. : 36. 



52 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

of his nature, always just in his dealings with all ; 
and that he may be merciful — though his nature, 
his character, his attributes do not require him 
to go beyond the line of mere justice. This it is 
thought tends to magnify and exalt the mercy of 
God as shown to us. But his mercy towards us 
proceeds from his nature and his character, as a 
perfect being ; and we must not gratuitously 
assume that in dealing with any other moral 
beings he has shown himself only as a God of 
justice. 

Why should it be thought that all the divine 
perfections and pre-eminently the divine goodness 
may not shine forth clearly in dealing with all 
moral beings? We make no such distinction in 
our estimate of the character of any finite moral 
being, as shown in his dealings with his fellow 
beings. Why should we make such distinction in 
our estimate of the character and dealings of the 
One Infinite Being who is the example and pattern 
of excellence for all other beings? 

When carefully considered it will ever be found 
that the sole ground for this distinction — making 
one standard for all finite moral beings, and 
another, and I am constrained to add a lower 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 53 

standard, for the Supreme Being — is the incon- 
siderate assumption that, since God is infinite in 
power and in all perfections, it is competent to him 
not only to show himself merciful to those needing 
mercy, but to ensure in every instance that those 
to whom he shows himself merciful shall actually 
come to share and enjoy his mercy. But for this 
unsupported assumption, no such distinction could 
be made in our estimate of moral beings, no such 
difference of standard of moral excellence could 
be endured. 

We are then required to consider fully the great 
question : What, and how much may one moral 
being do in influencing and determining the will of 
other moral beings? Is it competent to one moral 
being by any exercise of his power to determine 
and decide the action of the will of other beings so 
that their decisions shall always and necessarily 
be wise and right ; and this without invading or 
nullifying the freedom of will, or in any respect 
removing or lightening that real responsibility 
which in the nature of the case is linked thereto? 

For if we hold that in determining the will of 
others, nothing more is required than plentitude of 
power, we are not only constrained to admit that 



54 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the sole reason mercy offered to man is in any 
case rejected is that this power is not put forth ; 
but we are constrained also to hold that the sole 
reason any creature of God is not a full sharer 
in the divine goodness, is the mere will of the 
Supreme. Scripture very fully and plainly de- 
clares — and with equal emphasis — both the 
almightiness and sovereignty of God, and the real 
responsibility of creatures endowed with freedom 
of will. 

Perhaps the most remarkable, the most prevalent 
" 7ion sequitui'" to be found in man's theology is, 
that goodness, if only it be the goodness of a being 
who is infinite, must embrace and encompass with 
blessings all beings, irrespective of their own 
character or conduct. This is the one source of 
that heresy with which the church has had to con- 
tend in all ages, and which in various forms and 
new phases comes up, to the dismay of the evan- 
gelical and orthodox throughout Christendom. 
" God is merciful, God is infinite in all perfec- 
tions : Why then may we not hope that all shall, 
sooner or later, share fully in his mercy?" But 
his infinite goodness even in the form of mercy 
furnishes no ground of hope to the impenitent, 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 55 

even as his infinite justice no ground of fear to the 
penitent. We at once and clearly see that infinite 
justice discriminates ; we clearly see that punish- 
ments are conditioned upon character and conduct. 
But let us not overlook the fact that blessings are 
also conditioned upon character and conduct. 

In the case of moral beings on trial — as were 
our first parents, and as were the angels, and, we 
may safely infer, as were all moral beings at some 
time — it will perhaps be freely admitted that their 
experiencing the goodness, or their falling under 
the stroke of the justice, of their Creator, did in 
downright and plain truth depend upon their con- 
duct. God's infinitude of goodness did not ensure 
their continuing in the enjoyment of bliss. God's 
infinite justice did not necessitate their experienc- 
ing punishment. Their exercise of their own free 
will, their conduct and character determined in this 
matter. 

But in the case of the lapsed of our race it is 
thought that the matter is wholly changed. When 
God's goodness becomes mercy, it is thought that 
it is a flood which rises and swells, so that all 
regard to character and conduct or wisdom and 
rightness of choice, is quite covered, and should 



56 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

never come into view. Because grace abounds to 
the " chief of sinners " it is thought that the divine 
goodness in the form of mercy cannot be, as in the 
case of the unfallen, in any sense discriminative. 
This is but a notable instance of the confounding 
of things which are separate, and which no more 
commingle than do fire and water. " Whosoever 
will " must not be emasculated by making it mean 
anything short of: whosoever by his own will 
maketh a praiseworthy and a rewardable choice. 
God has not changed. The relation — constituted 
by the very nature of God and the very nature 
of man — between God as a moral agent and man 
as a moral agent, is an unchangeable relation. 
Under grace and here in this world, even as before 
grace or in any other world, moral beings stand 
apart from each other and are dealt with as real 
and distinct personalities. Efficacious grace is 
efficacious only because he who experiences it, 
acts, and acts in a way which God commands and 
commends and rewards. Strange that there 
should be so much confusion when the gospel as 
it is set forth in the whole Scripture is all aglow 
with the white light of this very truth. Mercy unto 
all? No, to " him who cometh." "Mercy com- 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 57 

pass round" — whom? Him that " trusteth in the 
Lord." " But why not also him that trusteth not? 
Is there not mercy enough for the one as well as 
for the other?" O fool and slow of heart, seest 
thou not that trust in the Lord is itself an element 
in the mercy , an essential element? 

I do not hesitate to put on record in this place 
my most profound and most joyful faith that there 
is no created being now, there will be no created 
being in the eternity, excluded from the full par- 
ticipation of the infinite goodness of God, except 
by reason of the want of, the wilful and persistent 
refusal of, that which is itself essential to such en- 
joyment. Accept this view and then at once there 
comes before the mind the overwhelming, gladden- 
ing view of the infinitude of divine goodness — 
yes, divine mercy, vast as space itself; goodness 
which grasps and holds within itself whatsoever is 
created; and goodness shared fully by all except 
such as by deliberate, persistent, final choice and 
act, refuse and reject it ; and what even these 
suffer, they suffer not only because of such rejec- 
tion, but in and by such rejection. 

i. The very goodness of God, the very infini- 
tude of his goodness, — the mercifulness of his 



58 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

character and of his government — makes it possi- 
ble that there should be sinners such as there are. 

2. The direst punishment they suffer, so far 
from being inconsistent with the goodness of God, 
consists in exclusion from such goodness. 

3. This exclusion no one can seriously think to 
b>e the mere determination of the will of Him who 
alone is good : for this thought would itself be the 
denial of the infinitude of His goodness. 

And let it not be supposed that since the result 
is not changed, there is no gain in taking this 
view ; let it not be supposed that it is of no conse- 
quence what view we take of the mercifulness of 
the divine character in His dealings with the lost, 
since in point of fact they are lost, they fail to 
share the divine goodness. 

For whether the result of His dealings with an 
individual or with a race be salvation or condem- 
nation, in the one case as in the other the justice, 
the goodness, the infinite mercifulness of God may 
shine out clearly and fully to all intelligences and 
to all eternity. Entertain this conception of the 
divine character and of the divine dealings with all 
moral beings, and from the most awful realms in 
the universe as well as from the brightest and 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 59 

highest, will shine forth the evidence, not merely 
of the justice, the power and the glory, but the 
evidence of the goodness, the infinite mercifulness 
of the Supreme, Lawgiver, Judge, and King. 
Surely with unspeakable joy we may entertain this 
view. Surely it tends to throw light upon one of 
the darkest problems which confronts us ; for then 
we are under no necessity of imagining that there 
are any beings who know nothing of God save as 
a God of strict, absolute, mere and bare justice. 
Taking this view we see a force, a significance, a 
beauty in the abounding declarations of Scripture 
respecting the goodness of God, which we could 
not otherwise see. Then we can really accept as 
true the words of Scripture: "The Lord is good 
to all ; his mercy is over all his works." 

Going back to the record of the fall of angels 
and of the race of mankind, how can we fail to 
learn a lesson regarding the relation which God 
sustains to the will of his creatures? If his infinite 
goodness, and his almightiness did not avail to 
ensure wise and right choice in the case of holy 
angels and sinless man, how can we now assume 
that the goodness and the almightiness of God 
must ensure that the lapsed of mankind shalL 



60 MERCY IN *THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

sooner or later make wise and right choice and be 
saved? There is no difficulty connected with the 
non-restoration of the fallen that is not really in- 
volved in the non-confirmation of the unfallen. 
The astounding fact of the fall of some of the 
angels and of the whole race of mankind — the 
only orders of beings of whom we have any inti- 
mation — should give pause to rash and confident 
men who imagine they are honoring God by 
ascribing to him a work, a prerogative — not to 
say a responsibility — which he has never claimed 
or exercised, — and one the exercise of which 
would, clearly, have prevented the fall of men and 
of angels ; so that there had been no need for its 
exercise in the matter of mercy offered to the 
fallen. If it is competent to God, because of his 
infinite goodness, linked as it is with his infinite 
power, to ensure in every case, and without taking 
away either liberty of will or real responsibility, 
a right and wise choice in the case of fallen 
beings, why not also — why not much more — in 
the case of the unfallen f With God all things are 
possible. But our Lord addressed these words to 
men, not to parrots. With God the greatest of all 
impossibilities is that he should do that which 



MERCIFUL IN HIMSELF. 6l 

would nullify his own most wonderful work, that 
which would strike down from his lofty — though 
perilous — eminence, man, whom he made in his 
own image and whom he made lord of this lower 
world. Salvation of the efficacious grace of God. 
Salvation always the result of the believing of him 
who is saved. Both these truths are supported by 
innumerable texts of Scripture. These two truths 
must not be made to be antagonistic. Neither 
must be so received, held and interpreted as to 
exclude or nullify the other ; not even when the 
intention is to give all glory to God ; for God is 
honored by the reception of all revealed truth. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 

But if God is merciful in his very nature, can 
we safely assume that this is shown only in deal- 
ing with the redeemed of mankind, or even with 
the entire race? The real character of a moral 
being should come into view in dealing with all 
other beings ; especially if we take into the account 
those dealings in their completeness. 

It may be said: "God's merciful character is 
brought clearly into view in his dealings with 
mankind, because they as fallen and perishing 
were fit objects of mercy ; but in the case of the 
angels, there was no display of the divine mercy, 
since neither those who stood nor those who fell 
experienced mercy ; the former not needing it, and 
the latter not having had any offer of mercy." 

Before accepting the above statement as the 
whole truth in the case, we should give careful 
62 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 63 

attention to a question which takes precedence to 
this one : May not the real, that is, the merciful 
character of God be manifested in dealing with 
beings who continue in a state of integrity, and 
even in dealing with those who by one transgres- 
sion fall irretrievably and are banished forever? 
Surely it is every way credible that a moral being 
whose attributes render him essentially and truly 
merciful, would act in his dealings with all other 
beings in a way which, severely analyzed, would 
give evidence of this his real character. The very 
elements of character clearly manifested in dealing 
with moral beings not objects of mercy \ might be 
such as rightly interpreted would give assurance 
that mercy would be shown should there be scope 
and occasion for mercy. It is assumed that the 
mercifulness of God — that is, his real and whole 
character, the infinitude of his goodness — has no 
place or scope, and in point of fact is not exercised 
either in the case of those beings who kept their 
first estate or of those who fell irretrievably, as did 
some of the angels (of whom it is gratuitously 
assumed that they sinned not against infinite 
mercy). This is to assume that the real char- 
acter may be inactive, unexercised, undisplayed, 



64 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

dormant. A moral being who acts, acts always 
the being that he is. A true analysis and full 
estimate of the dealings of one moral being with 
any other, would result in a true discovery of his 
real and whole character, his very highest perfec- 
tion. It is very true that such analysis is to us 
manifestly impossible. We look only on the sur- 
face.* 

Long after I had reached the conclusion that 
God is a Being in his very nature infinitely 

* The ingrained and hardened scoundrel can act his part so 
cleverly that we mistake him for a fine young man. When all 
is over and his character comes out plainly it may be that a few 
who had known him well will recall certain trivial acts and 
words, which, in the light of his great crimes, they now inter- 
pret as having given timely intimation of his true character. 
Very sensitive and finely constituted natures, it may be remem- 
bered, always shrank from him, even when he strove to be most 
obliging and polite, though for this they could give no reason. 

On the other hand : A worn and haggard countenance, 
mysterious movements, disregard of the common courtesies of 
life ; in short a mysterious and even suspicious character. Who 
is he? Whence came he? Ah, he has spent time and money, 
and many a sleepless night, has risked his life many a time in 
conducting poor fugitives safely beyond the reach of savage 
blood-hounds. A heroically benevolent and tender-hearted 
man. Now in the light of his shining virtues and Christian 
heroism, every word and act is interpreted favorably. 

What is the lesson towards which these and like well-known 
facts point? Is it not simply this? Real character is always 
brought out, always indicated. The dominate attribute of char- 
acter never recedes, never abdicates, but is always dominant. 
" The ointment of the right hand betrayeth itself." 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 65 

merciful, and after I had in vain striven to find 
something like a vindication of sin and misery in 
the notion that without these there had been no 
scope and room for the exercise and display of the 
real and whole character of God, — his infinite 
goodness, that is, his infinite mercifulness, which 
I then thought could in no sense and to no extent 
be displayed but for sin and misery ■, — I began to 
perceive that mercy being merely the highest form 
of goodness, — the goodness of God, from which 
mercy arises, goodness which culminates in mercy 
to our race, was goodness which might be so exer- 
cised and so displayed, not only in dealing with 
holy beings who kept their first estate, but even in 
dealing with those who fell and were irretrievably 
lost, as to suggest, nay, to -prove, him to be a Being 
in himself essentially and infinitely merciful ; a 
Being whose character as merciful could not but 
come gloriously into view in dealing with all moral 
beings, and even with sentient beings — a Being 
whose government is always and everywhere nec- 
essarily and unchangeably merciful as well as just.* 
I became satisfied that the main reason orthodox 

*The righteousness of good government is indeed that which 
it is fit all should see and take note of. It is well that those who 
can be restrained only by the terrors of the law, should have 



66 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

theologians hesitate to ascribe infinite mercifulness 
to God in dealing with all his creatures, is a lurk- 
ing conceit or fallacy of this kind : that to show 
mercy is to do that which in its very nature involves 
the resiling of justice or exact righteousness. And 
this same conceit — that there can be mercy by the 
mere resiling of justice — is also the reason so 
many have in all ages been hurried on to the con- 
clusion that there must be sooner or later the 
restoration of all the lapsed. 

But to show mercy is to show at the same time, 
and by the same act, righteousness also. For he 
cannot be a merciful being who is not also a right- 
eous being. He cannot show mercy unless he also 
show forth his righteousness. Indeed it seemed to 
me clear as noonday that the way of salvation, so 
fully revealed in Scripture, was the grand setting 
forth of this great truth that mercy consists in sat- 
isfying justice — of course always and necessarily 
by the able and willing in behalf of the weak and 
helpless. The far-reaching and profound signifi- 
cance of this truth, it is to be feared, is not always 

ever before them the absolute righteousness of the government. 
It is not surprising that this characteristic of government should 
be first and mainly regarded. The finer, higher traits of gov- 
ernment are not so readily seen. 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 67 

seen. For if God in showing mercy shows most 
clearly the righteousness of his character, it is not 
at all incredible that he, in dealing with the impeni- 
tent, should show clearly and fully the mercifulness 
of his character. If it be said that those who suf- 
fer the penalty of his justice really experience no 
mercy, let it be considered that there is an exactly 
corresponding paradox (if you will so regard it) 
in that those who enjoy the mercy of God feel not 
the slightest stroke of his justice ; and yet his 
justice is most gloriously "declared" x and dis- 
played in the very transaction by which mercy is 
shown to them. 

This view, while it does not propose any solution 
of the dark problem of the existence of evil, or the 
yet more dark problem of the perpetuity of evil, it 
does assign that problem to its -prosper -place. And 
this is what, after all, we must come to ; for the 
darkest enigmas are only distressing when they are 
placed where they ought not to be. To assume 
that God creates moral beings with whom he deals 
on the ground of pure, mere, and exact justice, so 
that they, now and to all eternity, may truly say, 

1 Rom. in. : 25. " To declare his righteousness for the remis- 
sion of sins." 



68 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

*' we know nothing of any goodness of God beyond 
mere justice;" to imagine that "there had been 
fewer sufferers had God been more merciful " — no 
one will be bold enough to say this, yet many do 
confidently affirm that which logically and inevi- 
tably implies just this — is quite a different thing 
from saying: " All moral beings, the lost as well 
as the saved (the lost as well as the saved of man- 
kind and of angels) , have been dealt with according 
to the real and the whole character of God, the one 
class as well as the other having known him to be 
in his character and in the sum of his dealings 
with them, not only infinitely just, but infinitely 
merciful. Indeed God's dealings even with the 
^//deserving — all the creatures of his hand; for 
what he bestows upon them they have no claim 
to — may be such as to indicate and foreshadow 
his dealings with the ///-deserving. God's deal- 
ings with all his creatures show forth all his per- 
fections, pre-eminently his goodness, that is his 
mercifulness. " His mercy is over all his other 
works." " His mercy fills the heavens." All the 
works and ways of God in the constitution of his 
creatures, and in the provision for their well-being, 
— not excepting, but including, the reign and 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 69 

prevalence of absolute law, with its rewards and 
penalties, — we should regard as evidence of God's 
character in its highest and utmost gloriousness. 
The whole gospel, the utmost mercy of God to his 
redeemed, the real character of God, indicated in 
the whole course of his providence, even in his 
dealings with the least of his creatures — just this 
is brought out clearly in the discourses of our 
Lord Christ — so that we ought to consider God's 
dealings with, in, and for, the least and lowliest 
creatures on the earth as proving him to be in his 
character and attributes a being who would deal 
with sinners in the very manner in which he, in 
his grace, actually dealeth with our race. 

Very gloriously doth the light break in upon 
the whole hemisphere of thought when it becomes 
plain to us that God, in all his works and in all 
his ways, in his dealings with all beings, reveals 
himself the infinitely good Being that he is, the 
infinitely merciful Being. 

"God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchange- 
able in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, 
goodness and truth." But if God is "infinite, 
eternal and unchangeable ... in his goodness," 
let it not be thought that infinite, eternal and 



70 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

unchangeable goodness only occasionally rises up 
to mercifulness. For he who, on occasion, proves 
to be merciful, we know was in himself merciful, 
even had there been no occasion. But in the 
sum of God's dealings with moral beings occa- 
sion for the exercise of his infinite perfections is 
never wanting. 

His mercifulness is mere goodness. What he 
has done for the well-being of all his creatures, 
since it is what they had no claim to, since it is 
free favor from pure and mere goodness, does not 
merely suggest ; it proves him to be what in his 
grace in Christ he has so fully revealed himself 
to be. His feeding the ravens that cry, his care 
for the sparrows, all the wondrous provision for 
the well-being of living creatures we could not 
have interpreted; yet when interpreted for us, as 
in Holy Scripture, as in the words of Christ our 
Lord, even we can discern, and with all joy and 
confidence accept. 

Nothing in the range of religious literature is 
more shocking than the grave and solemn decla- 
rations to the effect that God might have wholly 
refrained from showing himself merciful in his 
dealings with our race, without at all detracting 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 7 1 

from his character. The actual mercy which God 
in any instance showeth unto any violator of law 
cannot be mercy which he, being the God he is, 
might not have shown. It is indeed free, gra- 
cious, pure mercy, proceeding from God, who is 
free in the highest conceivable sense in which 
a being can be free. Yet this freedom, so far 
from depending upon the possibility of a different 
course, is but heightened if that impossibility arise 
solely from the excellence of his character; i.e., 
if his nature and character render such action, 
and such alone, really possible to him.* There 
are frightful results logically following from any 
lower view ; as that a being may be good who is 
not merciful. But God's word expressly requires 
mercifulness of all men. No one is godlike who 
does not show himself merciful as well as just, in 
his dealings with his fellowmen. Besides, if we 
make it the main ground of our high praise of 
divine mercy, that it is what God might have 

* Indeed, what are we taught in that notable appeal which 
the Lord by his prophet makes, when he asks : " Can a woman 
forget" — or in that other which our Saviour makes when he 
says : " If ye being evil know how to give good gifts "? if not 
that, what is possible to even the best and the most loving of 
parents, is impossible to God ; his nature, his divine perfections 
making the one best way, the only way? 



72 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

refrained from, we do impliedly, yet very plainly, 
reduce the estimate we make of all those acts or 
works of God which, by universal confession, 
could not but be as they are. " God that cannot 
lie." "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right?" Ah, the truth and the justice of God 
assured by the very nature of God : are these less 
praiseworthy on this account? 

There is indeed ground for the distinction 
between the natural and the moral attributes of 
God. This distinction is quite as obvious to the 
child as to the theologian or the philosopher. We 
■*' admire and adore God for his knowledge, his 
wisdom and his power : we praise and give thanks 
to him for his goodness." 

There is no ground for the distinction so often 
insisted upon, between the moral attributes them- 
selves. They all " arise by necessity from his 
nature : " they all are included in, or, rather, 
constitute his goodness. And goodness apart 
from mercifulness, is not found on earth or in 
heaven. The utmost mercy of God proceeds 
from his whole nature ; is the utmost manifesta- 
tion of his goodness ; his utmost self-manifestation. 

Groups of fallacies arise from any lower view 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 73 

of virtue. The idea of any excellence, any mercy 
in God, not from the very nature of God, is fol- 
lowed by the very absurd, but very prevalent, idea 
of virtue in creatures above that which even the 
divine law enjoins. Accordingly men deal quite 
nonchalantly with their "must" and their " may" 
when speaking of man's obligations, man's duty, 
in his dealings with his fellow-men.* As if God 
were more solicitous about the lower forms of 
virtue ; as if God had not commanded mercy and 
forgiveness precisely as he has commanded any 
other duty. As if God had not himself set the 
greatest example, and expressly commanded all to 
be imitators of the same. 

Much stress is laid upon the fact that it is the 
prerogative of the ruler to determine in any given 
case whether it is one in which it is fit and proper 
that mercy should be shown. Those taking refuge 
in this view seem oblivious of the fact that this 

* The notions generally entertained regarding the obligations 
that rest on the followers of Christ are pitiably and even ludi- 
crously defective. What the favored and prosperous Christian 
people " owe " to their fellow-men not one in ten thousand as 
yet even suspects. The imperativeness, the dejinileness of the 
divine law requiring- charity , myriads of Christians never once 
discover. They never dream that the " imitation of Christ" i& 
required of them. 



74 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

carries with it by plain implication, that this same 
prerogative may also determine in any given case 
whether justice shall be executed. But if preroga- 
tive determine mercy it is not only reasonable that 
it may determine justice ; it does thereby determine 
justice. 

Indeed, in dealing with his creatures all the per- 
fections of the divine nature are displayed in their 
fulness and harmony — the wisdom, power, holi- 
ness, justice, goodness, and truth at once and not 
separately — and this quite irrespective of the 
issue and result ; quite irrespective of the doom 
or destiny of any of those with whom God thus 
dealeth. 

If it seem rash or unwarrantable to hold that 
those who are condemned and sentenced to per- 
petual punishment for their sins have had abun- 
dant proof, and proof in God's actual dealings with 
them, even in their condemnation, that he who 
condemns them is a most merciful Being, though 
they share not his mercy ; let it be considered that 
this is not a whit more wonderful, or to be ques- 
tioned, than that the saved who experience his 
infinite mercy have had — and have had in God's 
dealings with them for their salvation — the most 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 75 

full and awful manifestation that God is a Being 
of infinite justice. 

The justice of God, the necessarily infinite right- 
eousness of God, which may be thought to be that 
which determines the overthrow of the impeni- 
tent, is but one of the glorious attributes of the one 
infinitely good Being in whom all perfections are 
united and act ever in utmost harmony ; so that 
he who is most merciful never in any case acts as 
if he were merely and only just. 

To attribute certain kinds of action or work to 
certain faculties, attributes, or powers of a moral 
being, and not to the person, the whole being is 
a prevalent but inexcusable error. As a ship at 
sea, as any vessel, from the smallest to the largest, 
that ever ventured on the deep, moves bodily and 
wholly, whether by the gentlest swell of the waves 
or by those which " mount up to heaven and go 
down again to the depths," moves bodily and 
wholly, whether driven by the furious gale or 
pressed by the gentlest zephyr, so any being who 
acts, acts the being that he is ; the least act is his 
as truly as the greatest; and for the least as for 
the greatest he is praiseworthy or blameworthy,, 
and not this or that faculty or attribute. 



j6 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Not only this ; but in all moral beings there is 
in the nature of the case one dominant attribute, 
one lofty regal motive, one that never abdicates, 
one whereunto all else is in true subordination. 
In man's present estate it may not always be easy 
to determine what is the dominant attribute ; 
although even admitting this, it is always assumed 
that there is such. Witness the diverse views 
even yet entertained respecting Cromwell's " rul- 
ing motive." 

But we are not left in doubt as to the dominant 
attribute of the Supreme Being, "the darling 
attribute," as the old divines delighted to call it. 
Scripture settles forever this matter. " God is" — 
justice ? ' ' God is " — power ? ' ' God is " — good- 
ness? No; " God is — love." 

Who that has ever followed the adventurous 
Dante to the close of his " Divina Comedia," that 
has ever felt the charm and the spell of that mar- 
vellous product of sanctified genius, but has been 
profoundly moved on reading : 

" . . that love 

Which moves the sun in heaven and all the stars." 

In this surprising expression who can fail to see 
the poet, the Christian, the theologian, the philoso- 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 77 

pher? Why not that -power " which moves the sun 
and all the stars"? Simply because to the true 
"seer" there is ever that which is higher than 
power, even as heaven is higher than the earth. 
Rather, to the true "seer," power in its utmost 
height, power in its supremest triumph, power in 
its crowning achievement is, and can be, nothing 
less, nothing lower, nothing other than love. • 

That every work is of the whole person, and is 
expressive of the true and the whole character, we 
may clearly see, even when we confess that it is 
impossible that we could so understand, so weigh, 
and so analyze the work that from it alone we 
could judge of the person or character. 

God doeth nothing except as God, nothing ex- 
cept in a godlike manner ; nothing except with 
godlike end and aim. Nor is there any one 
work or act of God in nature, providence or 
redemption that is not a part of the one self-mani- 
festation which God maketh ; which self-manifes- 
tation embraces and comprehends and unifies all 
that God doeth " ab extra" in the unit immensity 
and in the unit eternity, including the supreme 
self-manifestation which crowns and unites all 
others in itself, even that which he makes in his 



78 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Only Begotten, who is the brightness of his glory 
and the express image of his person. Therefore 
only by learning the true character of God — we 
can learn this only by means of his word and his 
grace — can any one rightly interpret any of the 
works of God. What God means by the " flowers 
of the field" which we look upon, no one can 
know except such as are instructed by the word, 
such as have learned by Scripture (and by gra- 
cious experience) that " God is love," and that 
" God so loved the world." 

For if God is love, then all that God doeth in 
nature he doeth because he so loved. Almighti- 
ness, then, " so loving," maketh all things work 
together " for good" ; and whoso otherwise inter- 
preted any work or way of God, misinterpreteth 
such work or way. It is well. The Lord reign- 
eth. He doeth all things well. " What we know 
not now we shall know hereafter." His infinite 
goodness, yes, his infinite goodness to us, we shall 
yet learn has been shown not by some but by all 
his works and ways to us-ward. "The whole 
paths of the Lord our God are mercy and truth." ' 
" How precious also are thy thoughts towards me ; 

' Ps. xxv. : 10. 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 79 

if I should count them they are more than the 
sand." 1 

God is himself in dealing with the penitent : he 
is himself in dealing with the impenitent. The 
"role" in which men act may vary, God's never. 
God doeth nothing that doth not show forth what 
he is. 

I am aware that to most persons it must, at first 
view, appear a rash and untenable position to 
assume that in all cases violators of law are dealt 
with in a way which brings out clearly, fully and 
gloriously the real and whole character of God, 
not only as he is a righteous, but especially as he 
is a merciful, a most merciful Being. For to most 
persons it will seem quite certain that since viola- 
tors of law really deserve to suffer the penalty 
annexed to their violation, whatever that may be ; 
and since they deserve not and share not the 
divine goodness, there is no necessity for the com- 
ing into view of the goodness, much less the 
mercifulness of God, but of his justice. That 
many should take just this view of the case is not 
surprising. The present dispensation of mercy 
is not generally rightly interpreted. Indeed the 

1 Ps. cxxxix. : 17. 



80 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

failure to interpret aright God's merciful dealings 
with man, is the chief indictment against mankind. 
" Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and 
forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that 
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?" 1 
But has not God instructed all mankind, and all 
on-looking intelligences, in regard to his char- 
acter, and in regard to his dealings with his 
creatures, by the dispensation of mercy under 
which he deals with our race? And in what way 
except by the study of God's actual dealings with 
the race of mankind, can we hope to come to a 
just view of the divine government? Apart from 
the transcendent lesson which we learn, not only 
from revelation, but from the actual government 
of this world, as observed by all, — even those who 
have no single ray of light from the word of God, 
— we might, indeed, assume that justice unaccom- 
panied by mercy might be the rule in the govern- 
ment of God. 

The estate of our fallen race, it may be assumed, 
is quite exceptional, though even this might, not 
without reason, be seriously questioned ; yet, ex- 
ceptional, unexampled or unique as it may be 

1 Rom. II. : 4. 



THE REAL AND THE WHOLE CHARACTER. 8l 

regarded, it does not follow that the principles 
exemplified, even in dealing with a case that is 
exceptional, should not be the same on which the 
divine government everywhere proceeds. Surely 
unless this be true, zve of the race of mankind 
should be shut out from all hope of coming to the 
knowledge of God. The notion of a divine gov- 
ernment that is everywhere administered in strict 
and exact justice, a government in which the ele- 
ment of mercifulness is wanting- — except in the 
small department of it in which we are situated — 
is a notion which comes, not by our reasoning 
" from the known to the unknown," but one which 
proceeds from our failing to learn thoroughly, and 
to keep ever before us, what God by his word and 
by his dealings with our race, both in his provi- 
dence and in his grace by Jesus Christ, ever teach- 
eth us ; even that his government may be at once 
most righteous and most merciful. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 

Is the ideal or perfect government merely for 
the administration of justice without constitutional 
or legal provision for mercy ; is it required and 
bound to administer law without mercy ; and if in 
any case mercy be shown, must it be considered 
exceptional and an interference with the normal 
and proper administration of government? Is 
mercifulness a virtue or excellence which may or 
may not characterize the perfect ruler and the 
perfect government ; something which no law, 
human or divine, requires, but a matter wholly 
at the option of the ruler, so that the utter disre- 
gard of it by human government is no violation 
of constitutional or legal obligation, and is neither 
punishable nor blameworthy? 

That the divine government is administered in 
mere justice, and that the Supreme Being in show- 
82 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 83 

ing himself to be merciful to our race departed 
from the established order, — perhaps the only 
departure to be believed to have taken place in 
the universe ; — that to us he has shown himself 
in a character in which he is unknown to any 
other of his creatures, is a view which has long 
prevailed. 

One great difficulty in the way of a right con- 
ception of this subject arises from the prevalent 
notion that there is " an independent moral law," 
a self-existent standard of right unto which not 
merely all creatures, but even the Uncreated 
himself must conform ; that is, he must be just 
while he may or may not be merciful. For it 
is thought that even he must recognize and con- 
form to " absolute, self-existent and eternal right," 
— which it is assumed exists independently of him. 
This impersonal, "independent moral law," it is 
assumed, makes justice, but not mercy, an essen- 
tial element in all government. 

But " He is before all things," and it is His 
nature which itself fixes and determines absolute 
right. The so-called " independent moral law" is 
" of Him." and not a \&\n for or upon Him. His 
existence, his attributes, his character renders 
righteous government a necessity. 



84 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

But if the divine nature, the divine character, 
— the standard of right, — determine and ensure 
justice always and everywhere in the divine gov- 
ernment, are we at liberty to imagine that mercy 
whensoever it be shown proceedeth from the mere 
will, and not from the whole nature, the harmoni- 
ous action of all the attributes, the whole character 
of God, so that for him to have done otherwise in 
any given case would have been as unworthy of 
him, as to have done otherwise in any given case 
in the administration of justice? There is indeed 
no obligation from without ; yet the very nature 
of God ensures that his government shall be a 
merciful as well as a righteous government. 

A government should be in its qualities fully 
up to the standard of the character, the highest 
excellence of him who governs. The utmost 
goodness of the Supreme Being must not be 
imagined to be kept back, to be unexercised or 
unexpressed in the government which he exercises 
over all his creatures. To imagine a reserve of 
goodness in the Supreme Ruler which only on 
rare occasions may, and therefore necessarily may 
not be shown, is really to dishonor him. He 
is righteous : but he is also merciful ; his mer- 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 85 

cifulness is in Scripture quite as fully and plainly 
declared as is his righteousness ; and this cannot 
mean merely that he is a Being capable of showing 
mercy ; for it is expressly declared that his mercy 
is over all his works, and that his mercy endureth 
forever. 

The long-accepted view that there is a dif- 
ference between the grounds of the righteous- 
ness and the mercifulness of the divine govern- 
ment in that the one is universal and therefore 
necessary, while the other is neither necessary 
nor universal, but rare and exceptional, is one 
which is not only unsupported in Scripture or 
reason, but is. in itself, self-contradictory, as may 
readily be seen. It proceeds on the assumption 
that righteousness, though necessary and universal 
in the divine government, may, in rare cases, 
yield that there may be room and scope for mercy. 
It proceeds on the assumption that in dealing 
with any world or any race of his creatures the 
Supreme Being is under a necessity to choose 
between these two courses : either he must deal 
with them on the ground of justice or on the 
ground of mercy ; if he is merciful, he cannot deal 
righteously, and if he deal in justice he cannot 
deal mercifullv with them. 



86 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

But since God is at once righteous and merciful, 
and since in him these attributes are ever in 
perfect harmony, he not only may be, he cannot 
but be — not indeed because of any independent 
law, but by reason of his own nature — always and 
in all his dealings with his creatures at the same 
time righteous and merciful. Justice so far from 
being set aside or obscured is necessarily and 
gloriously shown forth in divine mercy. His real 
and his whole character, his utmost excellence 
shines forth always and in all that he does. But 
the view above referred to makes neither right- 
eousness nor mercifulness characteristic of the 
divine government. 

By the careful study of such government as 
man is familiar with, we may get some intimation 
of what the ideal, that is, the divine, government 
must be. 

Government by man, it may be assumed, should 
be a type or pattern of the supreme government. 
But government by man in our present estate sel- 
dom has aimed higher than the mere maintenance 
of justice. We must not thence thoughtlessly con- 
clude that it is in this respect a true type of the 
divine government. For it is not a perfection, but 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 87 

a defect of human government that it is mainly for 
the ensuring of justice. In this respect it is in 
contrast with, rather than a pattern of, the divine. 
It is not the ideal, the very best that could be 
imagined, nor even the best to be attained by 
mankind ; for beneficent government is the great 
promise and the great hope of humanity. 

But in government by man, and in the regular 
and ordinary administration of government, there 
is always constitutional and legal provision for 
mercy. It is indeed true that the exercise of the 
constitutional and legal right and prerogative in 
all, or even in very many cases, would be dep- 
recated and condemned by the judgment of all. 
Nevertheless, it could be condemned only as an 
abuse of a constitutional and legal right. Here, 
then, is a notable fact of the utmost significance — 
government by man makes the showing of mercy 
a right and prerogative of the sovereign or the 
administrator; and this without restriction ; i.e., as 
a legal matter it is not exceptional at all ; its rare- 
ness is due solely to the discretion of the executive. 

But is it not thus clear as noonday that the sov- 
ereign ruler, in his discretion, judges that it is 
proper to show mercy only rarely — not because 



OO MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the constitution inhibits or throws any barrier in 
the way, not for want of constitutional and legal 
right — but because only rarely is it in the power 
of the government to do so, and at the same time 
maintain in full force and in honor the majesty 
of the law, and secure and maintain the claims of 
justice? Surely, then, provided there were any 
way by which these ends could be secured, that 
is, provided the administrator of law were able to 
devise and carry out any plan or scheme, in the 
use of all the resources at his command, by which, 
in showing mercy, the law should be fulfilled, 
magnified, and made honorable, he would not only 
have constitutional and legal right to do so, but 
would receive the commendation of all in thus 
showing mercy. Therefore, duly and fully con- 
sidered, it is but the simple truth that even human 
governments do not make the showing of mercy 
necessarily rare and exceptional. Human govern- 
ments are fundamentally merciful as well as just.* 
And if mercy is rarely shown it is only because of 
the rareness of the cases in which the resources at 

* From no culprit apprehended and under trial is this merci- 
ful feature of government for a moment hidden. There may 
indeed he little ground for him to hope to experience the 
clemency or mercy; vet this clearly defined characteristic of 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 89 

hand are ample for securing the ends of justice in 
showing mercy. 

Government merely for the administration of jus- 
tice? Government with no constitutional provision 
for the exercise of mercy? Government which in 
its nature and constitution is prohibited from show- 
ing mercy? Government required and bound to 
execute in every case the sentence of strict justice? 

There is not, there never was, such government 
set up on earth, even by the most barbarous of the 
tribes of mankind. No ; and had there been, it 
had been the very opposite of the divine govern- 
ment. For it had been satanic, and not godlike. 

Constitutional and legal provision for mercy is 
found in every government set up by man on earth. 

the mightiest, the strictest and even the most cruel govern- 
ment, he keeps ever in view, on and on till the death warrant is 
signed — and the signing of the death warrant is not a clerical 
or perfunctory act ; it implies the right to refuse to sign, or the 
power to show mercy — yes, on and on till the moment of the 
execution. That this feature of government should be main- 
tained, as it is, in the face of the furious clamor of an outraged 
public, that government even in dealing with the most desperate 
culprits should continue to show itself to be, in its constitution, 
in its law and in its administration, merciful as well as just, is, 
all things considered, most amazing and most instructive. In 
it w r e have the consensus of mankind that government must be 
essentially, fundamentally merciful as well as just; yes, merciful 
even while proceeding in awful majesty in the administration 
of justice. 



■QO MKRCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

This feature or characteristic of human govern- 
ment is as uniform, fundamental, and indispensable 
and every way as well-defined and established as 
is the provision for the execution of justice. 

We have in this the consensus of mankind, in 
all ages and in all stages of his advancement, that 
the element of mercifulness not only may be and 
not only ought to be, but must be in every govern- 
ment which man, being man, can set up, or even 
tolerate. 

The nation — which always constitutes the gov- 
ernment and always in one form or another gives 
law to the government (i.e., determines its rights, 
duties and aims and methods) — really says, and 
says to the governing power, the executive, the 
legislative and the judicial, to the whole govern- 
ment, " Be just. Administer justice, render to 
every one his due. Punish with deserved punish- 
ments the violators of law?" Indeed, and is this 
all? By no means; what then? Does the nation 
proceed to say, ''Show no mercy? Government 
is for the mere administration of justice?" Rather 
the nation says : 

" Government must be merciful as well as just." 
And to this end the sovereign — and this whether 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. QI 

hereditary, whether king, emperor, president, 
governor, or in what manner soever made sover- 
eign and by what title soever designated — shall 
be charged and entrusted with the power and the 
right, and therefore with the duty and the obliga- 
tion to exercise mercy ; so that in this, his action 
shall be altogether quite as legitimate, constitu- 
tional and unquestionable as in the administration 
of justice itself. 

This right or prerogative shall be unrestricted. 
It shall be left to the sovereign himself alone (or 
to that body of men, few or many, in which the 
nation lays sovereign power) to" determine in each 
case whether mercy shall or shall not be shown. 
This broad and sweeping recognition of the place 
and scope of mercy as an attribute of human gov- 
ernment ought to be very carefully studied. He 
who thinks that human government is for the mere 
maintenance of justice, and that it is in this respect 
the type of the divine government in its constitu- 
tion and in the ordinary course of its administra- 
tion, really fails to take in the most obvious and 
most striking, most excellent, most exalted and 
most admirable feature of both human and divine- 
government. 



92 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

True, he cannot but see that human govern- 
ments may sometimes, or very rarely, show 
mercy ; but this he regards as aside from the 
ordinary course, and not in the line of the great 
ends for which government is instituted and main- 
tained. 

And he thinks that in like manner the divine 
government, while it also is for the maintenance 
of justice, may as a rare exception be merciful. 

But let it be noticed that human governments 
by their very constitution are (i) required to be 
merciful as well as just. (2) That the showing 
of mercy is entrusted wholly to the sovereign ad- 
ministration. (3) Therefore the sovereign, should 
he show mercy in any given case, would be act- 
ing legally and constitutionally, and this, though 
in such case his action should be most unwise and 
reprehensible. 

The discretion of the sovereign or the adminis- 
tration, then, is the sole limit to the exercise of 
mercy. Mercy shown by the sovereign is never 
unconstitutional or illegal, though it be never so 
unwise or improper. This fact is itself one that is 
truly wonderful. It should teach us that merciful- 
ness is an essential feature of every moral person, 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 93 

whether an individual or a government, and one 
that even poor, short-sighted mortals will not 
suffer to be wanting in any government which they 
set up and sustain, or even tolerate here on earth. 

But what are the grounds or conditions upon 
which the sovereign is to exercise his discretion in 
showing mercy ? His right to show mercy in any 
one case, and therefore in every case, is clear and 
indisputable. And yet it is also as clearly and 
fully expected of him that he shall exercise this 
right — rarely? No, wisely; and if wisely, there- 
fore rarely ; which is by no means the same thing, 
but quite another and a different thing, as anyone 
may readily see 

What, then, is to determine the exercise of that 
mercy which it is the constitutional and legal 
right of the sovereign to exercise in any, and 
therefore in every case ? Why in point of fact is 
this mercy shown rarely? Why is it never ex- 
tended so as to be shown to all violators of law — 
(as it assuredly might be without any violation 
of that law which the nation prescribes for the 
government, the actual sovereign or administra- 
tion) ? 

The answer is : Mercy ought not to be shown 



94 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

except in those cases in which the claims of justice 
and of law can be maintained and vindicated at 
the same time and by the same transaction by 
which mercy is shown. This it is which restricts 
the showing of mercy. Surely any sovereign on 
earth might, with the approbation of all, show 
mercy in absolutely every case in which he sees 
clearly that he can do this without prejudice to 
the cause of justice. 

Surely now it must be manifest that even in 
human government the showing of mercy is not 
rare and exceptional because the nature and 
constitution of government requires that it be 
so, not because of a supposed want of any pro- 
vision for mercy in the constitution of govern- 
ment, and much less because of a supposed 
opposition of government to mercy, but because 
of the rareness of the cases in which mercy can 
be shown and yet justice be vindicated and main- 
tained. 

But are we not then constrained to see that it is 
merely the meagreness or poverty of the resources 
of the government that makes it a rare thing that 
mercy is shown? The government itself is in its 
whole structure and character and constitution 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 95 

merciful. When mercifulness pervades, illumines, 
irradiates the whole moral person, whether an 
individual or a government, it is not diabolical, 
satanical and horrible, but heavenly and godlike 
and beneficent. Man will not set up, man will 
not endure, even on this earth, a government in 
which this glorious and high attribute, the mer- 
ciful, is wholly wanting. 

When with these facts before us we lift up our 
eyes to the divine government which so gloriously 
overarches all government by man, or by creat- 
ures, shall we make the great mistake of suppos- 
ing that because human governments rarely show 
themselves merciful, because they are occupied 
mainly in maintaining justice, the divine govern- 
ment is for the maintenance of justice ; so that its 
mercifulness can be brought into view only rarely, 
so that mercy is, and must be, even in the divine 
government, " exceptional "? 

This conclusion would stand only if it were true 
that God could not at the same time show himself 
to be both merciful and just. But the main truth 
which the whole history of God's dealings with our 
race was designed to teach to man, and to all 
worlds, is simply this: " God can be most merci- 



96 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

ful and most righteous at the same time and in the 
same transaction." 

The divine government then in all its extent and 
as it moves on in awful majesty and glory is a per- 
petual manifestation not merely of the justice of 
the Supreme Ruler, but of his real and whole char- 
acter even as he himself proclaimed it to Moses : 
" The Lord merciful and gracious. . . and will by 
no means clear the guilty." And let it not be 
thought that there is no significance in the order 
in which the attributes of God are proclaimed ; 
for surely in this way we are at once arrested by 
the presentation of that attribute of the Divine 
Being which in its nature is highest and brightest, 
and that one which really is the showing forth of 
all the other attributes in their harmony, constitut- 
ing the one glorious and perfect Divine Being. 

Sovereign Prerogative 

in 

Showing Mercy. 

The view w r hich I have set forth in the fore- 
going pages of this chapter, and elsewhere, 
respecting the essential mercifulness of all govern- 
ment, human or divine, it is thought is quite over- 
turned, quite nullified by the simple assertion that 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 97 

" Mercy is, in human and divine government, 
always at the mere will of the sovereign." 

To the fallacy which underlies this and like 
objections, I now ask the candid attention of the 
reader. 

Mercy a sovereign prerogative, mercy left to 
the will of the sovereign — king, emperor, presi- 
dent or governor — and even more manifestly to 
Him who is higher than the kings of the earth. 
This ought not for a moment to be called in ques- 
tion. 

Consider, first, mercy as wholly in the power 
of the earthly sovereign. Why thus left in his 
power? Why is he the one to judge and decide 
in what cases mercy may be shown ? Is it because 
in reality in any given case what ought to be done 
is in itself uncertain or undetermined, or even 
necessarily undiscoverable? By no means. But 
because what ought to be done in each case cannot 
be foreseen or -predetermined by the nation which 
frames the constitution, or by any law or any rule 
which human legislators can prescribe. 

What is it, then? When any human sovereign 
exercises this, his high prerogative, is he to say : 

"Ah, now in this matter there is no rule, no 



90 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

law, no obligation upon me ; I am in my other 
official acts to be guided by constitutional and 
legal enactments, and beyond this I am answer- 
able and amenable to the eternal and absolute and 
very definite law of righteousness in all my other 
acts ; but in this, in the exercise of my preroga- 
tive in showing mercy, my will is law to me, I 
may do as I please?" 

No ; so far from this, the chief magistrate should 
realize that what ought to be done by him in the 
exercise of his high prerogative is always dis- 
tinct, explicit, definite ; it may be difficult for him 
to discover what ought to be done, yet never for 
a moment should he forget that there zs a distinct 
definite duty or obligation, one that comes down 
upon him with awful solemnity and power even 
from the throne and law and glory of God most 
high ; so that in the exercise of his prerogative in- 
showing mercy in any case he should aim to obey 
the higher, the highest law. And he should see 
clearly that in thus obeying the command and imi- 
tating the example of the Supreme Law-giver, 
Judge and King, he acts in strict accordance with 
the constitution and the law determined for him by 
the nation of whose government he is the head.- 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. 99 

The mercy he thus shows in the highest exercise 
of his sovereign prerogative is mercy justified, 
authorized by the command and example of God, 
and by the express letter of the constitution and 
laws of the commonwealth. 

It is, then, but the simple truth to say : The 
sovereign or the chief magistrate of any govern- 
ment among men in showing mercy in any given 
case, so far from being free to act according to the 
mere impulse of his own will, so far from being 
free to do either of two ways, is under most solemn 
obligation to act as under the law of God, while 
at the same time he acts in strict accordance with 
the constitution and law of the nation. He is in- 
deed the one to judge whether this case is one in 
which mercy ought to be shown, or one in which 
mercy can be shown, even by all the resources at 
hand or at all available ; but, having decided this 
one question, he can go forward with the assurance 
that he is obeying and carrying out the distinct 
and express and most admirable provision of all 
government, human or divine. 

But it may be said that the sovereign prerogative 
of the Supreme Ruler in showing mercy, unlike 
that of even the highest earthly sovereign, must 



IOO MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

not be thought to be restricted or determined 
except by his mere will. 

Realizing that a subject of this kind should be 
approached with most profound reverence and 
humility, and giving careful and respectful atten- 
tion to the views so fully set forth in the writings 
of the theologians regarding the divine sover- 
eignty in the matter of His showing mercy, I am 
persuaded that, with the very best of intentions, 
they have set forth a view which is not only un- 
scriptural and unreasonable, but one that the 
human mind, as God has made it, cannot accept 
and rest in, as the whole truth in the case. 

While I not only freely admit that there is no 
law, no obligation, but strenuously contend that 
there is not even an " independent moral law" or 
" a self-existent absolute right" which can be 
thought to determine any one of the divine decis- 
ions, I yet maintain that there is no decision of the 
divine will which is not determined both by the 
nature, character and attributes of God, and by 
the nature of the whole case in regard to which 
the divine decision is made. 

2. What God shall do in any given case is 
determined by what God is, and by zvhat the case 



MERCIFUL GOVERNMENT. IOI 

25.* What God shall do in the exercise of his 
sovereignty is determined by what he is ; and this 
quite as definitely and unalterably as what any 
sovereign under him should do is determined by 
the divine law in any manner made known. De- 
cisions of mere will are never made by rational 
beings. In morals there are never two right 
ways. '* Shall not the Judge of all the earth do 
right " cannot mean simply this : Which way so- 
ever the Judge of all the earth decides it shall be 
right. That he will always do that which is best 
we on good grounds confidently believe ; that is, 
we are so fully assured that he will do what is 

* " He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy "must 
not be interpreted to mean that his will acts in this matter 
either without regard to his own nature or character, or with- 
out regard to the real case as it is, with infinite clearness, seen 
by him. " Hath not the potter power (right R. V.) over the 
clay?" This does not mean that God deals with the work of his 
hands in a way unlike that which man may deal with what is in 
his power. It by no means countenances the too prevalent 
notion that God, because he is God, doeth that which moral 
beings may not imitate. It is but the assertion of the lordship 
of him who made us. The principle is that the maker is lord of 
what he makes, a principle which holds of any and every maker, 
Man's right to imitate is rather asserted than denied in this 
notable text. 

" What is man that thou art mindful of him " does not mean 
that there is nothing in man on account of which God has made 
such marvelous provision for his well-being in this life and in 
the life to come. 



102 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

right that we need no other evidence of its being 
right than that he hath done it. But this must not 
be thought to give the slightest countenance to the 
idea that of any two ways, either can be made 
right by the mere decision of will. All difficulty 
in regard to this matter is quite removed by the 
simple acceptance of the doctrine that God's own 
nature determines all his acts. He is law to him- 
self, his acts, his example, his self-manifestation 
by means of all that he hath done in creation, 
providence and redemption ; is law unto all beings, 
from the highest to the lowest ; law which over- 
arches and governs and determines the highest 
acts of the highest sovereignty wherewith any 
created being can be invested. God's law, God's 
example, expressly requires that every moral per- 
son, an individual or a government, a private 
individual or the chief magistrate, should be merci- 
ful ; and not only this, but God's law, God's exam- 
ple requires and fixes with absolute precision every 
act of mercy which the merciful individual or 
merciful sovereign ought to perform. And to get 
a clear view of this definite requirement should be 
the earnest prayer and constant endeavor of every 
one who is a subject of law. 



PART II. 



MERCY 

BY 

SATISFACTION OF LAW 



IO' 



CHAPTER I. 

LAW PREVAILS. 

In creation, so far as man can in any way come 
to the knowledge of it, there is no sign or hint that 
there is any particle of matter, or even any por- 
tion of space, that is not a perpetual witness to 
the presence and prevalence of absolute law. And 
law, as it everywhere prevails, no created being 
can " mock" evade, or interfere with in the slight- 
est degree.* On the contrary, all progress in 
knowledge or in work is due to the prevalence 
of invariable law ; to the reliableness, the uni- 
formity, the continuity of law. Created beings, 
even the very highest, find room and scope for 
their noblest powers without the slightest inter- 
ference with the uniformity of law governing all 
that the Creator hath called into existence. 

* Strictly speaking, no law, whether natural or moral, can be 
broken. It is always the violator of law, and not the law, that 
is " broken." 

io5 



Io6 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

That the glorious purposes of the Creator him- 
self are for the most part accomplished, not only 
without interference with, but by means of the 
infinitely exact, invariable, and withal, most benefi- 
cent laws which he ordained, cannot for a moment 
be called in question. But it is thought that he, in 
the accomplishment of some of his most glorious 
purposes — especially his purpose of mercy to our 
race — may not only suspend natural law, but 
relax or set aside the claims of moral law, by the 
exercise of his mere will or his sovereign preroga- 
tive. Again and again we are thus instructed : 
" God, while ordinarily he worketh by means of 
the law which he has imposed upon all that he has 
made, is above law; he can relax, modify, or sus- 
pend it>at will." 

Now if law were self-existent, or were something 
apart from God, it might be proof of his excel- 
lence, his superiority., that he should relax or set 
it aside. But law in all its extent, as it prevails 
everywhere, is nothing but his will; and his will 
changeth not. Not only is it true that the most 
glorious manifestations of his perfections may be 
made without relaxing or suspending any one of 
the laws which he has ordained ; but it is true that 



LAW PREVAILS. IO7 

his highest self-manifestation in his mercy to us 
consisted in the fulfilment of law. 

The will of God in the form of law governing 
matter or mind is in no way a barrier to the accom- 
plishment of the very highest and holiest ends 
which any created being can set before him. The 
will of God in the form of law, as law now every- 
where prevails, is no barrier in the way of the 
most glorious work of God himself. 

Law is nothing but the will of the Supreme Law- 
giver, and he changeth not. We know that his 
will now, in regard to any matter, is the same that 
it was in eternity. Every reason which could be 
imagined for willing and ordering any change, any 
interference with the reign of law, must have been 
present to the mind of the Law-giver in eternity. 
Reason for change cannot spring up " de novo " in 
the view of him to whom the future and the past 
are as the present. 

The notion which most of all leads some good 
and reverent minds to admit the possibility of such 
interference is that in this way it is thought the 
goodness of God can be specially shown forth ; as 
if the real character of the Creator had not found 
expression in his laws as they were ordained from 



108 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the beginning, and as they now prevail ; as if 
providence by uniform, invariable, and harmonious 
movement of law, did not sufficiently set forth the 
goodness of the Deity ; as if the divine law were 
not the expression of the divine perfections, and 
pre-eminently of the divine beneficence. 

But it is thought that to show mercy in any 
instance it is necessary that there be some inter- 
ference with law. It is thought that the supreme 
example of mercy — that shown to our race by the 
mediation of Christ — necessarily involves if not 
a suspension, at least a relaxation of law. So far 
from this being the case, the mercy shown to us 
not only leaves law undisturbed in its reign, it con- 
sists in complete satisfaction of law in all its claims 
and demands, both as regards penalty and obedi- 
ence. This is what Christ accomplished. In 
doing this he ensured for us all the mercy we 
need, all that God hath for us. 

The misconception of the very nature of mercy 
— as necessarily involving if not a suspension, at 
least a relaxation of law, a mitigation of its pen- 
alty, and this by mere arbitrary decision of the 
divine will - — has given occasion for the most 
prevalent prejudice against the whole doctrine of 
redemption by Christ. 



LAW PREVAILS. IO9 

The clear recognition, the frank and full accept- 
ance of the simple truth that law always and 
everywhere prevails undisturbed, and that every 
instance of escape from impending danger on 
account of this reign and prevalence of law, from 
the least to the greatest, is afforded by intervention 
of adequate power or agency meeting and satisfy- 
ing law, simply takes away all excuse for this 
prevalent prejudice, leaves no standing ground for 
this the most plausible of all the objections against 
the revealed evangelical scheme of redemption. 

The purely evangelical doctrine, and not any 
one of the heretical theories of redemption, is the 
doctrine which is wholly free from this objection. 
For then redemption by Christ is the assertion of 
the undisturbed reign of law. Because law pre- 
vails everywhere, because law cannot be mocked, 
relaxed, or its penalties mitigated, it was necessary 
that Christ should come, should make atonement, 
and thus restore to righteousness and thus save all 
who should come to him. 

Conceding at the outset the absoluteness of law, 
maintaining that redemption by Christ is simply 
the supreme exemplification of the one only way 
of escape from the penalties of law, whether natu- 



HO MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

ral or moral, that is, by intervention of adequate 
power,* no standing room is then left for any of 
the legion forms of heresy regarding the way 
of salvation by the atonement of Christ, with 
which the Church has had to contend in all ages ; 
and no shadow of excuse is left for that most 
plausible and prevalent objection to the revealed 
way of salvation ; for then human redemption is 
unspeakably the most grand and awe-inspiring 
instance and example of the power and prevalence 
of absolute and exact law, while it is at the same 
time the most glorious, cheering, hope-inspiring 
instance and example of God's only way of deliv- 
erance ; a way of deliverance foreshadowed and 
typified by every instance of deliverance, from the 
greatest to the least, in the history of the human 
race ; yes, foreshadowed and even typified in the 
protection afforded to sentient beings from such 
dangers and evils as threaten them under the reign 
of law governing them, and all the elements round 
about them. 

A Word with " the Philosophers" 
In all ages, perhaps somewhat more confidently 
in recent times, the opponents of the pure gospel 

* See Chapter " Intervention "in " Atonement and Law." 



LAW PREVAILS. Ill 

either assert or assume that their objection to the 
evangelical view arises from the fact that they 
are philosophers. And thus "the philosophers" 
always reason: "We see no instance of suspen- 
sion of law, no mitigation of its penalties ; we 
nowhere discover any break in the chain of causes 
which holds between the present and the past. 
Indeed, we see no reason to think that this world — 
and all that from it man beholds — is governed 
otherwise than by law, and law that is universal, 
uniform, invariable in its operation ; law that is 
never repealed or relaxed. Now, you come to us 
with the account of a wonderful, an astounding, 
a solitary departure from the method which we 
everywhere observe, and you insist that this is 
credible, and is justified on the ground that hereby 
the perfections of the Deity may be shown forth 
as they are not and as they could not be under the 
reign of law." 

But why must we ask that this be believed? 
Who is responsible for the theory that redemption 
is not " within the sphere of law?" Christians as 
well as skeptics should recognize the everywhere 
proclaimed fact that law prevails. 

If law be allowed its full demands, if it be in no 



112 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

respect restricted or robbed of its due, how can 
any violator of law escape deserved penalty? The 
answer to this question is simply this: " Grace 
reigns through righteousness.'" That is, by the 
fulfilment of law, by satisfying law in its de- 
mands for penalty and for obedience as well. 

Beyond question, the most prevalent and plausi- 
ble objection to revealed religion or to the doctrine 
of mercy through Christ is the objection which 
arises from the everywhere observed presence and 
prevalence of law. This objection, however, 
would have no force, would be absolutely irrele- 
vant but for the assumption that mercy in its nature 
involves some interference with the prevalence and 
reign of law. It is, therefore, of the utmost im- 
portance that we come to a clear view of how it 
can be that law prevails undisturbed and serene 
everywhere in the universe, and yet provision 
ample and glorious for mercy also. The divine 
government is a government by law. Absolute 
justice characterizes the divine government. But 
the divine government is essentially a merciful as 
well as a just government. Governments, as insti- 
tuted among men, are inadequate yet real types 
of the divine government in this respect ; for there 



LAW PREVAILS. 113 

is no government, there has been no government 
among men in which there was not constitutional 
and legal provision for mercy as well as for justice. 
This characteristic of government has been almost 
wholly overlooked or disregarded, if not openly 
denied. The reason for this is not far to seek. 
In the situation in which mankind has been, for 
the most part, in the centuries past, little more was 
expected or hoped for from civil government but 
the wholesome restraint of wrong-doing. There- 
fore men have fallen into the error of supposing 
that government exists mainly, if not solely, for 
the maintenance of justice. 

A great point is gained when to anyone it be- 
comes clear that the divine government is a gov- 
ernment of law, and yet has provision ample and 
glorious for the exercise of mercy, and this on 
the part not only of every subject of law, every 
moral person, every government on earth or any- 
where else, but on the part of him who is supreme. 
Let it be clearly seen that all government is re- 
quired to be merciful as well as just. This is the 
law resting upon every subject of the divine law ; 
but this is so only because he who is the Head and 
Source of all authority is himself a merciful Being, 



114 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and his government is essentially a merciful gov- 
ernment. And let it not be thought that while he 
requires mercy on the part of individuals and of 
governments under him, and while he makes pro- 
vision by which this which he requires, they may 
exemplify, he himself, by virtue of his being the 
Supreme, is debarred from showing mercy, or, if 
he show mercy, it must be in some peculiar, unique 
way, and unlike that in which others show mercy. 
Let it not be thought that his own law could in any 
sense be a barrier to his showing mercy to those 
needing mercy and under condemnation; for — 
though to him there is no law requiring merciful- 
ness as there is to all others under him — his own 
perfection, from which law requiring mercy on 
the part of his creatures proceeds, is that which 
ensures that his government shall be pre-eminently 
merciful. It is every way credible that the 
Supreme Being, who, in eternity purposed to make 
this the most full and glorious self-manifestation, 
should have constituted the universe and should 
have ordained the laws by which it should be 
ordered and governed, with this his great end ever 
in view, and should have made all things in their 
order and in their place typical of this his utmost 



LAW PREVAILS. 115 

work. The burden of proof lies on those that 
deny, not on those who affirm, in this case. The 
universe is a universe. It is one. It works to one 
end. The end toward which it is ever working 
is not less but more definite than that which any 
created being sets before him. We must not think 
that the myriads of admirable ends, intermediately 
and most beautifully accomplished, could not be 
reached without some special interference with 
the onward movement of all the working forces in 
the empire of mind and matter in exact accordance 
with invariable law ; for the lesson of all that man 
observes is that all things work together for the 
accomplishment of the ends, all the glorious and 
admirable ends, which the Creator set before him 
from the foundation of the world. 

How the free agency of myriads of creatures 
can be maintained inviolate, and not only the 
divinely purposed end be ever fully and exactly 
accomplished, but each living being, from the least 
to the greatest, made to work in harmony with all 
others, and with all the forces of nature directly to 
that end, we, of course, cannot hope to understand. 
And yet this, just this, we cannot but accept, 
unless we call in question the very existence of 
a Supreme Ruler of the universe. 



CHAPTER II. 

SATISFACTION OF LAW. 

With many the very idea of mercy is that it 
consists in, or, in its very nature implies, a relaxa- 
tion of law, a setting aside of its exact and full 
demands ; and therefore atonement by the satisfac- 
tion of law they regard as inadmissible, contrary 
to justice and right. Accordingly they strenuously 
contend that whatever Christ did, he did not " sat- 
isfy divine justice," did not meet the penalty due to 
the sinner, did not satisfy the law in his behalf. 

The radical fallacy underlying the opposition to 
the doctrine of atonement by the satisfaction of 
law, it will ever be found is a misconception of the 
very nature of mercy ; imagining that in so far 
as mercy prevails justice must recede, law must 
yield. 

So far from this being the case, there is, there 
can be no complete and true mercy except by the 
116 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. II7 

complete and full satisfaction of law ; and no 
mercy at all except by that which tends to, or 
approximates the satisfaction of law. There are 
none who need mercy — none to whom mercy can 
be shown — except such as are under condem- 
nation of law. And the sole reason they need 
mercy is that they are under condemnation of law. 
The only mercy they need is deliverance from this 
condemnation. Anything that could be done for 
them short of such deliverance would be of no 
avail. 

But how can deliverance from condemnation of 
law be obtained? Unquestionably, only by the 
satisfaction of law. 

We thus come to the supreme question, how can 
law be satisfied in behalf of those under its con- 
demnation? For the possibility of mercy to those 
under condemnation of law — the only ones need- 
ing mercy — is the possibility of the satisfaction of 
law in their behalf. 

The mercy shown to sinners in Christ's great 
sacrifice in their behalf, is but the supreme and 
most glorious instance and exemplification of true 
mercy, even as mercy in its very nature must 
always and everywhere be exemplified ; and that 



Il8 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

which men imagine and laud and magnify as 
mercy, which confessedly falls short of this, or 
rather, which is held up as excellent because it is 
free from this distinguishing characteristic, is not 
mercy at all. 

Let the character and estate of those who are 
objects of mercy be fully and carefully considered. 

i. Assuredly they are not persons who have 
always been obedient to law. None such need 
mercy. It is impossible that any truly and fully 
obedient to law should receive any mercy. 
Mercy, then, is solely for violators of law. 

2. They are objects of mercy because violators 
of law. 

3. They are sufferers only because they are 
violators of law. 

4. They are exposed to just penalty in the 
future because of their transgression. 

5. This penalty of violated law is in its very 
nature without limit as to duration. Everywhere 
we are admonished that the results of violation of 
law are illimitable. Transgression having oc- 
curred, the future is thereby determined; so that 
if nothing be done the penalty remains forever. 

In view of this, their estate, let us seriously con- 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. II9 

sider what is the mercy they need. Is it mere 
exemption from present pain? Is it the gratifica- 
tion of any or all the propensities of their nature? 
Is it the assurance that no farther penalty shall be 
inflicted? Is it the assurance that all possible good 
shall be supplied, — all possible to be given and 
enjoyed, short of that supreme good which flows 
from full satisfaction of law, and consequent justifi- 
cation or righteousness before the law ? Manifestly 
not one, not all of these would constitute the mercy 
needed. What avail all that could be given unto, 
all that could be done for, one yet left under con- 
demnation of law. 

On the other hand, let it be observed that deliv- 
erance from condemnation, by means of full satis- 
faction of law, carries with it all conceivable good ; 
for as all evil is brought down upon us by the con- 
demnation of law, all blessing comes from being 
free from condemnation, righteous before the law. 

Mercy consists in deliverance from condemna- 
tion of law. But let it ever be clearly seen that 
there is in the nature of the case but one only way 
of deliverance. God's mercy consisted, not in 
suspending or relaxing his law, but in providing 
for the full satisfaction of law in behalf of, and 



120 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

at length by, his redeemed. But we, also, if we 
would show mercy, shall find no other way except 
as in this manner we imitate him who is most 
merciful. We are commanded to be " merciful as 
our Father in heaven is merciful." He who will 
show mercy to his fellow-man in any matter, even 
in forgiving the least debt, can do so in no other 
way. 

In the Lord's Prayer, " Forgive us our debts 
as we forgive our debtors," and in many of the 
parables, as also in other parts of Scripture, it is 
assumed that there is a likeness between debt and 
sin. Indeed, if there had been anything better 
suited to set before our minds the real condition of 
the sinner, we cannot doubt that it, and not debt, 
would have been the emblem. In all ages and in 
all lands this emblem as set forth in the simple 
language of Scripture has been most cordially 
and joyfully accepted in its plain and evident 
meaning. Nothing has afforded greater satisfac- 
tion to sin-burdened and sorrowing ones. It is 
greatly to be regretted that some expounders of 
the Scripture have exhausted their strength and 
skill in striving to establish a difference between 
the emblem and that which it is used to illustrate. 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 121 

Theologians who oppose the doctrine of Christ's 
substitution hasten to explain: "Sin is not like 
debt ; the sinner cannot be delivered from the con- 
demnation he is under, as can the debtor ; no sub- 
stitute can pay a ransom for him." Scripture, so 
far from asserting that sin is so unlike debt that 
no price, no ransom can procure deliverance, 
abounds with most explicit and abundant assur- 
ances that a "price" a " ransom " a. " redemp- 
tion" every way perfect has been provided, offered, 
and accepted. Nowhere does Scripture assert a 
contrast between the way by which a sinner and 
that by which a debtor is delivered. On the con- 
trary, everywhere and with the utmost power of 
language, Scripture sets forth the likeness of the 
way of deliverance. Scripture does indeed assert 
and emphasize the immeasurable superiority of the 
ransom price. 

The one way of deliverance from sin, as from 
debt, is the satisfaction of law. This satisfaction 
is required of the person himself, debtor or sinner. 
The sinner cannot, indeed, satisfy law ; but this is 
not because of anything in the nature of the law. 
The sinner himself, like the debtor, is the one 
whose place it is to satisfy the law. The law looks 



122 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

to him first of all. The obligation to satisfy the 
law rests first and wholly upon him, and would be 
forever upon him should no surety or substitute 
freely offer himself. But anyone able to do so may 
satisfy the law in behalf of the debtor. So also 
anyone fully able and willing may satisfy the law 
in behalf of the sinner, as well as of the debtor, 
and thus deliver from condemnation, and this with- 
out the slightest relaxation of the law. Everyone 
can see clearly that there is no relaxation when 
a surety satisfies the law in behalf of a debtor. 
But there is a prevalent notion that there must be 
relaxation when even the most competent surety 
satisfies law in behalf of the sinner. This is 
wholly due to a failure to estimate aright Christ's 
satisfaction. Its peculiar glory consisted in its 
meeting the original and full requirements, not of 
relaxed, but of unrelaxed, law. 

Deliverance from debt is always and only by the 
satisfaction of the law. This is true not only 
when payment is made by the debtor himself; it is 
equally true when payment is made by anyone 
under law acting as a substitute for him ; but it is 
true also when the debtor is delivered or released 
from his debt by the creditor himself. This is not 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 123 

always so clearly seen. The creditor himself can 
no more deliver the debtor by mere expressions 
of sympathy and good-will than can any other 
friend or neighbor. Words are not charity. " Be 
ye warmed and clothed." A creditor must love 
not in word only. The one as well as the other 
must voluntarily consent to surrender so much of 
his own wealth as the note calls for. Charity 
which costs nothing is worth nothing. In the 
simplest act of forgiveness of debt there must be 
full satisfaction of the law; and a satisfaction, too,, 
which is by another (than the debtor) assuming, 
taking upon himself, meeting and satisfying the 
legal obligation ; and this by suffering (of course 
in his property) to the amount named in the note 
or bond. And let it be noticed that this is done 
not only in the interest of, for the good of, but in 
the place of, or as the substitute of, the debtor. So> 
that the creditor who simply forgives a debt, in 
reality does an act which, under close examina- 
tion and severe analysis, proves to be like the act 
of a benevolent surety, no one element being want- 
ing in this case. Nothing but the prevalence of 
the absurd notion of forgiveness without satisfac- 
tion could justify more extended argument or 
illustration. 



124 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Two benevolent men of equal standing have 
their attention called to the estate of a poor debtor. 
They see plainly that he can be relieved in but one 
only way. Some one must, in his behalf, satisfy 
the legal obligation which is upon him. It is now 
discovered that to one of the two in question the 
debt is due, — they being equally able and equally 
willing to show mercy to the debtor. Is there one 
way open to the benevolent friend who should 
propose to be the surety or substitute, and quite 
another and easier and simpler way open before 
the one who is himself the creditor? It is clear 
as noonday that even the creditor himself cannot 
show mercy in this case, cannot forgive debt and 
release the debtor without doing the very same 
thing that the proposed surety or substitute must 
do to reach that result. The fact that in the one 
case there must be the actual forth-bringing of the 
required amount in money, and in the other case 
the mere consenting to forego or lose just that 
amount, cannot be allowed to obscure the real 
similarity of the two cases. For when all is over, 
when the debtor is actually delivered, whether by 
the surety or the creditor himself, it is evident that 
the one who befriended him or showed him mercy 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 1 25 

voluntarily surrendered his own property to the 
amount required, that the law in the case might 
be satisfied. 

For the same reason that a surety must satisfy 
fully the law in order to deliver a debtor, must the 
creditor himself; and anything done, everything 
that could possibly be done, whether by the surety 
or by the creditor, which should fall short of a 
full satisfaction of the law as above described, 
would fall short of the mercy required. 

If the creditor be at the same time the law-giver, 
the administrator of the law, is he therefore de- 
barred from acting for the deliverance of the 
debtor ; or if he act must it be in a way different 
from that of any other in affecting like deliver- 
ance? 

The chief magistrate, in any government on 
earth, emperor, president, governor, or king, if he 
would show mercy, if he would deliver the help- 
less debtor, must do this in a way not at all differ- 
ent from that of any surety, any creditor under his 
government. So far from being the one who may 
not in this way show mercy he is specially qualified 
and enabled to be foremost in this kind of bene- 
ficence. Mercy, the highest form of goodness, 



126 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

befits monarchs. " Wouldst thou draw near the 
nature of the gods, draw near them then in being 
merciful." 

I have, I trust, shown somewhat clearly (i) that 
the debtor — or the sinner — can be delivered only 
by the satisfaction of law; (2) that this deliver- 
ance may be by the debtor — or sinner — himself, 
if he be able to render such satisfaction ; (3) it may 
be by any fellow-man acting as his substitute ; (4) 
that this same satisfaction must be rendered by the 
creditor himself if he would show mercy; (5) and 
that this same satisfaction must be made even 
when the creditor is himself the chief magistrate. 
In every case the one only way is, the satisfaction 
of law. 

With all reverence, yet with all confidence, I 
now proceed to say that the Supreme Law-giver, 
Judge and King himself showeth mercy in this 
very way, this one only way. The reason lies in 
the very nature of the case. The universe is so 
constituted and governed that bliss can be reached 
by any subject of the divine government only 
when brought into full harmony with law. Mani- 
festly this can be reached, in the case of violators 
of law only by satisfaction. With reverence we 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 1 27 

may venture to say that God himself could not 
show mercy to any violator of his law otherwise 
than by providing first of all for the satisfaction of 
violated law and at the same time providing for 
complete restoration to obedience. But both these 
constitute nothing else, nothing more than the true 
and proper satisfaction of law. "If we confess 
our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." l 
These two parts of Christ's great redemptive work 
must not be thought to be separate or separable. 
To imagine that we might have been saved, might 
have reached perfect bliss in some other way than 
by the perfect satisfaction of law for us, and at 
length by us, is not a whit less absurd than to 
imagine that by some device of ours the great law 
of gravitation might be escaped. To imagine 
bliss conferred upon any moral being, a violator 
of law, otherwise than by making him every way 
conformable to law, is to imagine what is simply 
absurd. Satisfaction full and complete for the 
sinner ; satisfaction full and complete by the sin- 
ner, — both these are essential. Only thus could 
God himself save us. Saved thus, the law instead 

1 I. John 1. : 9. 



128 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

of being relaxed, dispensed with, or in any respect 
robbed of its due, is " magnified and made honor- 
able." 

It is ever and with great confidence asserted by 
" the advanced thinkers" in the theological world, 
that forgiveness as taught by the evangelical, that 
is forgiveness on the grounds of substitution, ran- 
som price, or by the satisfaction of law, is a " legal 
fiction," a " pure figment," " contrary to the prin- 
ciples of justice," an "outrage upon the moral 
sense implanted in man," a " travesty upon jus- 
tice," a " mockery of the law." 

We must charitably assume that those advanced 
thinkers who so confidently and in the strongest 
terms, denounce the doctrine of forgiveness held 
by the evangelical church in all ages, have not 
carefully and closely studied the common instances 
and examples of mercy or forgiveness among men, 
have not carefully analyzed that simple and famil- 
iar emblem — the forgiveness of debt — whereby 
more than by any other our Lord himself has, in 
the brief form of prayer, as also in his parables, 
taught us the true nature of mercy or forgiveness, 
whether by man or by our Father in heaven. For 
surely if they had given to the study of this subject 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 1 29 

those noble powers and that " independent judg- 
ment" — whereof they are abidingly conscious, 
and for which they are boundlessly thankful — 
they would have seen that God in the order and 
course of his providence, and by the laws which 
determine absolutely how these ends may, nay 
must, be reached, has left to the merciful man no 
other way by which he may show mercy to his 
fellow-man, even in so small a matter as the for- 
giveness of a legal debt — and there is no real 
debt that is not legal — but by the satisfaction of 
law in behalf of, instead of, and as the substitute 
of, the debtor, no other way even for the creditor 
himself. No other way for the one who is at the 
same time the creditor and law-giver or adminis- 
trator of the law. 

Mercy consists in satisfaction of law. Nothing 
is mercy, true and proper, but that which gives 
deliverance from condemnation of law. If any 
should object to this, affirming that mercy consists 
in doing good in any way to sufferers, I reply (i) 
there are no sufferers except those who are under 
condemnation as violators of law ; and (2) that no 
real and enduring good can be done to them short 
of complete deliverance from impending penalty, 



130 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and restoration to righteousness, or conformity to 
law. Both of these are, in strictness of language, 
simple and mere satisfaction of law. And nothing 
is mercy, true and proper, except as, and in so far 
as, it approximates to such satisfaction. 

This I have already endeavored to prove and 
illustrate by the direct consideration of actual in- 
stances and examples of mercy, whether by finite 
beings or by the One Infinite Being who is most 
merciful and who has given the one supreme ex- 
ample of mercy, of which every merciful act, even 
by the least and weakest of his creatures, is, in its 
nature and necessarily, a real though an infinitesi- 
mal pattern and type. 

We come now to consider how the condemned, 
the suffering, the unrighteous, require or need 
only these two things : (1) reinstatement in right- 
eousness before the law ; or, the complete removal 
of all condemnation, all liability to punishment for 
past offences; (2) conformity of heart and life to 
the precepts, the full requirements of the divine 
law. But both of these are obtained only by the 
satisfaction of law. Rather, both of these are re- 
quired to constitute the satisfaction of law, the only 
satisfaction possible. For the law requires of the 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 131 

guilty not only the payment of the penalty, but 
perfect conformity to the precept, and law is not, 
and cannot be, in any true and proper sense, satis- 
fied until it obtains both of these. 

Let it not be thought that there is the least im- 
propriety in calling all that is done for the re- 
deemed by Christ the Saviour — whatever else it 
may be — a true and proper satisfaction of law in 
their behalf. This is true, this is equally true, of 
that which Christ does by his vicarious sufferings 
in paying the penalty for their transgressions ; and 
that which he does by his grace in the hearts of 
his redeemed in their sanctification. To him be- 
longs the glory of both these parts of the great 
satisfaction of law wherein all mercy consists. 
For since the actual conformity of the heart and 
life of believers to the law of God by means of the 
grace of Christ sanctifying them, is owing to the 
atonement made by Christ, and owing to the grace 
of Christ, it is not separated from Christ's satisfac- 
tion which he renders to the law in their behalf. 
While it is to Christ that we owe both the parts of 
that complete satisfaction of the law wherein con- 
sists the entireness of God's mercy to us, let it be 
observed that Christ effects neither of these except 
by the concurrent act of the saved. 



132 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

The sacrificial atonement of Christ, gloriously 
complete and perfect as it is in itself, is never " for 
us" except as by divine grace, it is actively ap- 
propriated. But for this it could not be called a 
satisfaction of the law in our behalf; for what the 
law demands, it demands of us. If that which is 
rendered be not in any true and proper sense from 
us, whatever it be, it cannot be a satisfaction for 
us. Overlooking the fact that Christ's glorious 
and every way perfect obedience includes in itself 
as a constituent element of it, the obedience of all 
united to him, and that it is for this reason a true 
and proper satisfaction, heretics amuse themselves 
with, and are never weary of exposing the absurd- 
ity of, the notion that one person should " believe," 
" love," or " obey " for another. 

Christ's satisfaction of the law, when it de* 
manded payment of penalty as well as when it 
demanded obedience to the precept, includes what 
he does in his own person, and also what and all 
that he does by his grace and by his spirit in and 
for and by the saved, even from the first act of 
obedience — believing on his name — on and on 
throughout the progressive work of sanctification 
till they are fully conformed to the law of God. 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 133 

Thus only is the law satisfied. Nothing short of 
this would be a true satisfaction.* 

Whatsoever the merciful or the Most Merciful 
might do, if it should fall short of just such satis- 
faction, would be of no avail, no real enduring 
benefit to those under condemnation. Anything 
and everything conceivable that could be done for 
one who needs mercy, — except that the penalty he 
owes to the law remains unsatisfied, and except 
that he is not in heart and life conformable to the 
law's requirements, who could fail to see that his 
case is in no way improved? The excellence of 
the things furnished or offered him, instead of 
affording the least alleviation of his miseries, only 
aggravates them. He who is dying of hunger 
is not comforted, or in any sense relieved, or 
momentarily benefited, by the offer of gold or 
pearls. Whoso needeth mercy at all needeth it 
because he is under condemnation of law, and 

* As Christ's sacrificial death availed for the saints of the old 
dispensation because the covenant engagement made it as though 
it were already offered, even so the perfect obedience of each of 
the saved — since they are now united to Christ — being equally 
and on the same ground assured, is as though it were already 
rendered. So that this perfect obedience, considered in its true 
relation to the work and the grace of Christ, is a true and essen- 
tial part of the great satisfaction. 



134 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

because he is out of harmony with law. The 
mercy, therefore, which he needs is nothing other 
than the satisfaction of the law. The only source 
of all his misery, as well as of all danger, is that 
there remains against him unsatisfied demands of 
the law. Law irrepealable and inexorable asks 
ever just this satisfaction. 

But this which law demands, conscience also, 
and with like imperativeness demands. For this 
every awakened conscience cries. For him who 
needeth mercy there is no hope save this : the sat- 
isfaction of law. For him the best that the uni- 
verse contains hath no charm. To him all good 
must come after, not before the satisfaction of law. 
With all reverence we may say God himself could 
not make blessed any one against whom his own 
law hath unsatisfied demands. God himself can 
give to those who need mercy no real good but 
that which consists in providing for and insuring 
the full satisfaction of the law for them and by 
them. Therefore he holds out no hope or promise 
of good other than this. This one great good is 
the condition of the enjoyment of any other. 
Under condemnation as violators of law, unable to 
render obedience to the precepts of the law, the 



SATISFACTION OF LAW. 1 35 

sole hope is that in some way satisfaction may be 
made, and in some way ability may be given to 
fulfill perfectly the law in time to come. If these 
can be then — hope. If these cannot be then — 
despair — " outer darkness ; ' — " as darkness it- 
self" — "neither sun nor stars" — but night on 
which "darkness hath seized" forevermore — 
" the blackness of darkness forever and ever." 

While all else is of no avail, to do this is to do 
all that is needed, all that is possible to be done 
for him. To do anything else for him is to do 
nothing. To do this is to do everything. Let 
him who thinks otherwise try to imagine some- 
thing added to this complete satisfaction of law, 
something that will make his present estate better, 
or his future more bright. Surely none can fail to 
see at length that no being can possibly come into 
any blessedness beyond that which flows from 
perfect conformity to the divine law. God who 
looked with infinite pity looked also with infinite 
wisdom upon mankind. He proposed no other 
good for man than this, restoration to perfect con- 
formity to law. This restoration by the one only 
way — the satisfaction of law. This is God's 
mercy. This is the entireness of God's mercy. 



136 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

This is mercy to the uttermost. This puts man in 
possession of all that his nature can demand or 
enjoy. Satisfaction of law ensured, all is ensured. 
Free from condemnation and enabled to render 
perfect obedience to law, he has not only the right 
unto, but has in possession all conceivable good. 
He needs nothing more. He has already all 
there is for any subject of law. He has all the 
mercy that can be asked or imagined ; all the 
mercy God himself can give. God's mercy is just 
this, the righteousness of Christ by which the law 
is satisfied, magnified and made honorable ; the 
righteousness of the saved, who in God's own 
time and way are by his grace made conformable 
to his holy law. Anything short of this, whatever 
men may imagine, is not mercy at all. This is 
mercy which leaves nothing beyond to be enjoyed 
or imagined. This is the mercy which the saved 
accept with unspeakable joy. It is to them "all 
their salvation and all their desire." In this mercy 
redeemed souls rest with supreme delight. And 
no soul of man in this world has ever "found 
rest" ever can find rest in anything that falls short 
of this. Short of this there is no beginning of 
mercy ; no beginning of peace ; for conscience is 
satisfied only as and only because law is satisfied. 



CHAPTER III. 

MERCY AND JUSTICE. 

God in showing mercy to man did not do so at 
the expense of justice ; rather in that great trans- 
action by which his mercy is most gloriously dis- 
played, he also revealed, even more fully than in 
any other of his works or his ways, the measure, 
the extent, the infinitude of his justice. The work 
of Christ — which work, as all the evangelical 
confess, consisted mainly in his sacrificial suffer- 
ing, even his " obedience unto death'" — while 
it was the supreme manifestation of divine mercy, 
was also the supreme, the utmost manifestation of 
the infinitude of the justice of God. It was the 
most glorious "fiat justitia" that the universe 
had ever heard. No one of the attributes of God 
can be exercised in any way which interferes with 
the glorious and full exercise of any other attri- 
bute. 

'Phil. ii. : 8. 

(137) 



I38 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Whatever may or may not be, justice must be 
satisfied. There can be no mercy by any kind of 
weakening or resiling of justice. And because of 
this, it was necessary that Christ should come and 
should do and suffer in fulfilment of the law. 

But if God in showing mercy ceases not to show 
himself to be a just God, let it not be thought in- 
credible that he in inflicting just punishment upon 
the guilty should show himself to be in his char- 
acter a most merciful being. If the attribute of 
justice is not hidden from view in Christ's redemp- 
tive work, if it is made to shine out from the cross, 
to shine out from the cross more gloriously and 
affectingly than anywhere else in the universe, 
let it be considered that justice as inflicted upon 
the impenitent, does not hide from view the infini- 
tude of the mercy of God, does not conceal from 
view the real character of God. The ground of 
the condemnation of the lost is that they rejected 
offered mercy. Their sin was not merely against 
a God of justice ; it was against the God who zs, 
and who proclaims himself in his word, and in the 
whole course of his providence, most merciful. 

Most of the heresies which have vexed the 
church of Christ in all the ages have arisen from 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. 139 

man's puerile conceit regarding the very nature of 
mercy, — the notion that justice must be in some 
sense relaxed if mercy be shown. It is not at all 
difficult to see how this one baneful fallacy pre- 
vails and survives age after age, even after the 
most valiant and vehement denunciations of the 
orthodox. No amount of teaching, no array of 
Scripture, no chain of reasoning, can wholly root 
out or abate a heresy which is indigenous, which 
has its roots so deeply imbedded in a soil so well 
suited to give it vigorous growth. " From justice 
all danger" ; therefore, if justice could but be held 
back, or could be in any way weakened or relaxed, 
it is thought that man's case would be by so much 
improved. The supreme question is, indeed, the 
question of deliverance from the stroke of justice. 
But why will men dream of any other way of 
deliverance except that which is so fully declared 
in Scripture, and so variously and fully symbolized 
and illustrated in the whole course of providence 
— the satisfaction of law? The mercy of God is 
the declaration of his righteousness. His right- 
eousness shines forth more fully in this than in 
any other way. 

If there is a peculiar and amazing exhibition 



I4O MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and exemplification of justice in that great trans- 
action by which mercy was provided for man, an 
exhibition and exemplification which conveys a 
lesson that could in no other way be so solemnly 
and mightily impressed upon the minds of all, let 
it not be thought incredible that there should be, 
correspondingly, a most marvelous showing forth 
of the real, the infinite mercifulness of God's char- 
acter, even in the dire judgments poured out upon 
the impenitent of our race. The underlying truth 
which makes this view not only credible and 
rational, but the only credible and rational view, 
is that any being, great or small, finite or infinite, 
acts always in accordance with his whole nature 
or character, so that all that he is is truly im- 
pressed upon and signified by every work which 
proceeds from him. The individual mind, that is 
the actor, the person, is a unit, and every work 
which proceeds from the person is the work not of 
a part but of the entire unit.* Of course it is not 
meant that man, or any, even the highest created 

* The distinction so carelessly made between hand-work and 
brain-work — as if brain-work were peculiar to "the profes- 
sors," or to " literateurs," and not at all, or at least in a very 
subordinate sense, shared in by artisans — is a distinction that is 
not merely without foundation, it involves a gross error. The 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. I4I 

intelligences, in time or in eternity, could so 
thoroughly study and so fully interpret any one 
of the works of the Creator — or of any worker — 
as to derive from it alone a full view of the real 
nature, character and perfections of the worker 
who left upon it the impress of his own real char- 
acter. But it is meant that man may so study the 
works and ways of God — especially as these are 
interpreted by the bright light of his own word, 

philosopher, the author, the scientist, and even the orator, must 
do good brain-work; but even so must the carpenter or the 
blacksmith. Every stroke by which the iron is shaped or 
fashioned on the anvil will be a true, a wise, a successful stroke 
only as in the brain of the blacksmith there be good brain-zvork. 
The whole man acts; and as the man is, so is his work; and 
this, though there be many who see neither the man nor his 
work, so as to interpret the one or the other. 

From time to time there appears a crank, a " genius," or a 
prodigy who boldly gives out that he can tell the character of 
any one, if you will but show him a specimen of his (or her) 
handwriting, or even if you show him an old shoe Avorn by the 
friend whose character you would be pleased to have hi?n 
" read." Now we who claim to be wise, while we are thankful 
that we are not like this poor mountebank, should show that we 
are really wise; we should be willing to learn even from fools. 
Seriously, what is the "proton pseudos " in the pretensions of 
the charlatan, i' the mind reader"? Is it that character is indi- 
cated by the actions and doings of mortals? No: it is that he 
is the one who, above his sane fellow mortals, can so interpret 
the traces of the pen, or even the treadings of the feet, as from 
these alone he can tell you what sort of person traced with the 
hand, or trod with the feet. 



I42 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and the brighter light of his own marvelous and 
saving grace — that he shall have the fullest assur- 
ance that the real and the whole character, and 
the gloriously perfect harmony of the divine attri- 
butes, even all of them, are indelibly impressed 
upon and shine forth in all his works.* For who 
will dare to say that God is the one only worker 
who sends forth from his hand works which 
either bear no mark, or bear an imperfect mark 
or sign of the source from which they proceed. 
"The heavens declare his glory," but this the 
heavens do only because everything that goes to 
constitute the heavens, even all his works, praise 
him. 

If among men the highest, purest, and noblest 
of all, the supreme judge, of a great common- 
wealth, is never regarded as lacking in the tender- 
est and kindest feelings of humanity, by reason 
that it is his duty to pronounce sentence of con- 
demnation upon the culprit who has attempted the 
destruction of the state, why should it be thought 
that the one Law-giver and Judge, who is supreme 
in the universe in a higher sense than is any 

* There is no creature so small and abject that it representeth 
not the goodness of God. — Thomas a Kempis. 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. I43 

supreme in the commonwealth, even in his most 
fearful sentence against those who sought the ruin 
of all, should do this otherwise than in the full and 
harmonious activity of all his glorious attributes 
and perfections? Indeed, all right-thinking per- 
sons read in the finely marked features and hear 
in the rich and tender undertones of the venerable 
and just judge who is pronouncing sentence upon 
the culprit, the fulness and flood-tide of mercy and 
compassion wherewith he is manifestly even then 
surcharged. And shall it be thought incredible 
that in him of whom the highest and purest judge 
on earth is but a faint type or pattern, there should 
be like characteristics, like intimations of good- 
ness, kindness or tenderness ; and this, when all 
through the Bible run the most solemn assertions 
and assurances of just this divine tenderness and 
compassion. " I have no pleasure in the death of 
him that dieth." ' " Not willing that any should 
perish." 2 " The wrath of the Lamb." 3 

Indeed, unless we so regard the character of 
God, even in this condemnation of the impenitent, 
we reduce the pathetic cry of Jesus, when on Mt. 
Olivet he wept over Jerusalem, to a mere betrayal 

1 Ezekiel xxxiii. : 11. 2 II. Pet. in. : 9. 3 Rev. vi. : 16. 



144 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

of human sympathy, not to say human weakness ; 
whereas in it we should discern the infinitude, the 
boundlessness of divine pity and compassion. 

Many without question assume that to be merci- 
ful is simply to refrain from inflicting deserved 
penalty, simply to surrender the claims of justice. 
If this be true, surely it follows that to be ?nost 
merciful must be to refrain from executing the 
sentence of justice in any case. 

Multitudes conscious of the length to which this 
idea of mercy logically carries them, seek to find 
a way of escape. "It would not do to show 
mercy to all. Something is due to justice." So 
it is imagined that a compromise must be made. 
Indeed without being conscious of the dishonor — 
almost amounting to blasphemy — which this view 
casts upon the Supreme Being, they assume that 
he, like some of the tyrant conquerors of the bar- 
baric ages, " measures with a line to destroy and 
to save alive." 

In all candor, what else is their view? '• Mercy 
is just letting off so many culprits by merely re- 
fraining- from executing the sentence of justice." 
But since, manifestly, it would not do to let off all 
culprits, some must be dealt with on the grounds 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. I45 

•of justice and others on the grounds of mercy. 
And in this way the claims of justice are to be 
maintained ! In this way the character of the 
Supreme Ruler as a merciful and a just Being is 
to be vindicated ; just and merciful ; that is, just 
in dealing with some, merciful in dealing with 
others ! 

" Mercy consists in letting the sinner escape 
justice." But mercy is most praiseworthy ; there- 
fore since God is most merciful, he will not in the 
end execute the sentence of justice on any. If he 
seem to inflict penalty, it is but seeming. For all 
that to us seems penalty " is simply remedial." 

"Law does not require penalty."* Between 
this and the high ground occupied by the orthodox 
in all ages, there is no resting-place. No com- 
promise is possible. The restorationists are logi- 
cal ; so also are the "most straightest sect" of the 
evangelical. All others are in mid-air. 

If mercy be the invasion of the province of 
justice, if such mercy be praiseworthy, the con- 
clusion is unavoidable : mercy must not merely 



*" Atonement and Law Reviewed" (page 23^), by S. G. 
Burney, D.D., LL.D , Professor of Systematic Theology, Cum- 
berland University, Nashville, Tenn. 



I46 MERCY IX THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

invade, it must prevail and triumph everywhere. 
To this conclusion bold and vigorous minds have 
been led, even from the very early ages of the 
Christian era down to our own times. It could 
not be otherwise. The new theology is unscrip- 
tural and unphilosophical ; moreover, its trend is 
always in the direction of universalism, as every 
one who has carefully observed cannot but know. 
It would result in universalism were its advocates 
only a little more courageous and logical. They 
are all facing towards that goal ; but only the in- 
trepid, those who can make vast and rapid strides, 
reach it in a lifetime. Most new theologians die 
while the goal is yet in the dim distance before 
them, die praising their God that, if not altogether 
as good as he might have been, certainly he is 
good far beyond what the followers of Augustine 
and of Calvin, and the evangelical generally, im- 
agine him to be ; much more merciful than the 
orthodox generally admit.* 

Not thus is character in any case to be vindi- 
cated. The condemnation of one sinner, if vin- 

* Witness the gratuitous plea for God: that "after all, not 
many of mankind will be lost " ; witness the cool and confident 
answer to the question which Jesus refused to answer: "Are 
there few that be saved?" 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. I47 

dicated at all, must be vindicated on its own 
grounds. Mercy to ten thousand times ten thou- 
sand and thousands of thousands, mercy to every 
other violator of law in the universe, would not 
weigh so much as a feather's weight in vindication 
of an act which was not in itself its own vindica- 
tion. God measures with no line, long or short, 
"to save alive and to kill." If his whole charac- 
ter be not set forth and gloriously vindicated in the 
sum total of his dealings with everyone with whom 
he deals, in vain shall any one go in search of 
testimonials, or in any way undertake to " plead 
for God." Indeed the most advanced thinker — I 
mean the new theologian — would never volunteer 
to be in any such manner the vindicator of God, 
but for the fact that he fails to see in its true light 
how Mercy and Justice harmonize, and are glori- 
ously displayed and " declared" and vindicated in 
the redemptive work of Christ. He thinks that 
mercy can never shine brightly unless justice be in 
some respects eclipsed. He thinks justice can 
never be maintained except by a judge who, for 
the time ceases to be, or at least ceases to show 
himself to be, merciful. He gets no clear view 
of the "declared" "righteousness of God." He 



I40 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

grasps not the true meaning of the words, "just 
and the justifier of him that believeth." 1 Those 
who really believe that God is infinitely merciful, 
so long as they imagine mercy to be the mere 
setting aside of justice, cannot stop short of the 
conclusion that all shall in the end be saved. The 
scriptural and evangelical doctrine of mercy is 
mercy which not only invades not, overshadows 
not, but which gloriously displays or declares the 
justice, the righteousness of God. For, as in his* 
great act of mercy his righteousness is declared, 
so in his most awful sentence of justice his merci- 
fulness is that which is above all things most 
brightly and gloriously revealed and declared, so 
that none can fail to see it now and even to all 
eternity. Mercy at the expense of justice is a 
pure fiction of the human brain. He who would 
show mercy at all, man who would show mercy 
to his fellow-man can do so only by declaring his 
righteousness ; for mercy consists in making right- 
eous (those who were unrighteous). To do aught 
else for them would be short of mercy. This is 
what they need, all they need. He who will 
make them righteous — that is reinstate them so that 

1 Rom. ill. : 26. 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. I49 

there is no condemnation of law against them, 
renew and change them so that they are every 
way fully conformed to law — does thereby confer 
upon them all the mercy it is possible they could 
have. He leaves nothing to be added. He who 
does this can boldly exclaim, " It is finished." ' 

By the discussion thus far, we are led to the 
following conclusions : — 

1. The only persons who need mercy are the 
unrighteous. 

2. The only mercy they need is deliverance 
from the evils which arise from unrighteousness. 

3. But deliverance from these can be secured 
only by becoming righteous. 

4. But to become righteous is to satisfy all the 
claims and demands of justice or of law. 

5. The claims and demands of justice or of law 
are undeniably these : ( r ) satisfaction for all past 
offences ; (2) conformity to all the precepts. 

6. But satisfaction for all past offences can be 
made only by the payment of the full penalty an- 
nexed to the violations or offences. 

7. And conformity to the precepts or require- 
ments of the law is nothing short of true and per- 

1 John xix. : 30. 



150 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

feet righteousness of character; that is, of the 
heart, wherefrom alone true and perfect obedience 
can spring. 

8. But satisfaction for past offences and con- 
formity to the precept is obviously in the nature 
of the case, and quite obviously also in all human 
experience, an utter impossibility in the case of the 
violator of law — and of conscience also — who is 
in heart and life unrighteous. 

9. So, then, true and perfect mercy can con- 
sist in nothing less than, nothing short of, the 
satisfaction of law in its demand of penalty for all 
past offences, and restoration to righteousness or 
ability to render obedience, which satisfaction and 
restoration must be the act and work of another 
for the unrighteous, though never against, or 
even without the concurrent will and act of him 
who is thus saved. 

10. The satisfaction and restoration must be by 
one who not only acts in the interest of, and for 
the good of, another, but in his stead and as his 
substitute. 

11. Perfect mercy in every case is perfect sat- 
isfaction and perfect restoration. Whatever falls 
short of this, since it leaves the violator of law 



MERCY AND JUSTICE. 151 

under the same condemnation, is not the mercy 
needed. 

12. No merely human, no created, or merely 
finite, being can, in behalf of any violator of law, 
render complete and full satisfaction, or work in 
another — a violator of law — a complete restora- 
tion of heart and life, so as to afford the mercy 
which every one, who needs mercy at all, mani- 
festly requires. 

13. The Scripture not in single texts but 
throughout, in its typology, its poetry, its proph- 
ecy, and in the Apocalypse sets it forth as the 
glory of Christ that he did that which no other 
could have done. In doing this he gave to the 
universe the one supreme, inapproachable example 
and instance of virtue, goodness, love. For doing 
this he receives and shall receive in the eternal 
ages the rapturous praises of the universe. 

14. Yet any, even the least and weakest, moral 
being, since made in the image of God, can do for 
another acts of mercy which are in themselves and 
in their aim and tendency identical with that mercy 
which God in Christ affords to sinners. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 

Those who strenuously contend against the 
doctrine of the forgiveness of sin on the ground of 
Christ's satisfaction, those who persistently deny 
that what Christ did was in any true and proper 
sense a satisfaction of the law, do so on the as- 
sumption that forgiveness as exemplified among 
men either in the case of private individuals or in 
the case of those who are administrators of the 
law, is, or may be, forgiveness in which no regard 
whatever is paid to the question of the satisfaction 
of the law, in that particular matter with respect to 
which the act of forgiveness is concerned. 

But careful scrutiny and discrimination must 
lead to the clear perception that forgiveness as 
exemplified among men is seldom without mani- 
fest and avowed regard to, or without being really 
based upon, some kind of provision for the satis- 
152 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 153 

faction of the law ; and that in those cases in which 
forgiveness is granted in disregard of the satisfac- 
tion of law, it is forgiveness which is reprobated 
and unhesitatingly condemned by the universal 
conscience ; and that it is also a forgiveness which, 
so far from being a real benefit and blessing or 
mercy to the one forgiven, but damages his stand- 
ing and endangers his future. And besides this 
it is forgiveness which is prejudicial to the real 
interests of the community or the commonwealth. 
It not only meets with disapprobation as that which 
it is not fit or right should be, but it is felt and 
resented by the public as an evil and a menace to 
society. 

That these positions are abundantly sustained 
by the deliberate verdict of mankind in all human 
history, even a little consideration will make plain. 

Elsewhere I have shown at length (as I trust to 
the satisfaction of every candid mind) that in for- 
giveness of debt, a legal debt — and there is no 
debt that is not legal — there is always and neces- 
sarily provision made for the full satisfaction of the 
law in that matter, and that this satisfaction of the 
law is none the less complete and direct when it 
is the creditor himself who forgives. 



154 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

I desire now, however, to set forth clearly and 
fully how in all cases of forgiveness — except those 
unwarranted and unreasoning and wanton acts of 
forgiveness which are met with universal reproba- 
tion by the common conscience of the community 
— even when the one who forgives is at one and 
the same time the creditor and the administrator 
of law or the governing power, there is manifest 
regard to the satisfaction of law. 

Debtors until within recent years were in all 
nations regarded and treated as culpable, were 
liable to imprisonment. And even yet, in all 
lands debtors are regarded in the same light ; for 
though imprisonment for debt has been abolished, 
on account of the fearful hardships it often in- 
volved, no government fails to enact laws with 
the design of bringing debtors to the bar of the 
law, and preventing them from defrauding their 
creditors. The fact that the laws have been 
changed, that the penalties are not the same, in no 
respect interferes with the other fact that the laws 
of all lands, now as ever, regard debtors as amen- 
able to the law. 

But how does the law deal with debtors? When 
and how are debtors wont to be delivered 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 155, 

(whether from prison or from whatever obligation 
or restriction they are under by the sentence of the 
law as debtors) ? The answer is : Only when in 
some way provision has been made for the satis- 
faction of the law, either by the debtor or by a 
surety, or by the creditor himself. Now, if the 
debtor himself satisfy the law, his deliverance is not 
an act of forgiveness at all. But if any other one, 
a friend, a surety, or the creditor himself, consent 
to satisfy the law, then the deliverance or release 
of the debtor is forgiveness true and proper. 

If it be said that the administrator of the law 
when he releases a debtor on the ground that a 
surety or that the creditor himself consents to 
satisfy the law in that matter — and in either case 
the satisfaction is necessarily (i) by suffering loss,, 
or parting with so much property; (2) this, in 
behalf of, and instead of, and as the substitute of,. 
the debtor — does not grant forgiveness at all, 
but simply does an act of justice. I reply, this is 
undeniably the true view of the case. All is due 
in such case to the surety or the creditor — all is 
due to the one, be he who he may, who rendered 
to the law its full demand ; the one who made the 
full satisfaction is the one who shows mercy. 



156 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Here let it be observed that the ground on 
which the release and the complete deliverance of 
the redeemed, according to the evangelical faith, 
is called an act of forgiveness, is that the satisfac- 
tion was -provided and furnished by the Supreme 
Law-giver himself, who, though he is above all, 
is not on that account debarred from this one kind 
of beneficence from which, by all confession, no 
subject of law is at all debarred. It is manifestly 
because this is not clearly seen that there is the 
unreasoning and persistent clamor against the 
evangelical doctrine of forgiveness. 

So then forgiveness, or the release and deliver- 
ance of debtors from whatever restraints or penal- 
ties law lays upon them (whether imprisonment, 
or forbidding their fleeing the country, or their 
giving bonds, etc.,) is always forgiveness, or re- 
lease, or deliverance, because in some way pro- 
vision has been made for the satisfaction of the 
law. 

Forgiveness or release of debtors on any other 
ground, or without provision made in some way 
for the satisfaction of the law, would be reprobated 
and condemned by every one as wanton and un- 
warrantable, and even illegal. 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 1 57 

Imagine a most merciful magistrate or ruler 
who, out of his mere compassion, should rule 
and determine that all debtors should go free? 
He, forsooth, because he is merciful (?) will, out 
of tender compassion, release or forgive all debtors. 
He is not merciful at all. He is incapable of 
showing mercy ; for he knows not wherein mercy 
consists. And his act, so far from being an act of 
mercy, is one of gross and manifest injustice. It 
is not mercy even to the debtor. For when it is 
past, he is still a debtor. The unsatisfied law yet 
condemns him, as does also his own conscience, 
as well as the conscience of every other of his 
fellow-men. The law is not honored. 

But it may be thought that in other cases of 
criminals under sentence of the law, there need be 
no like provision for the satisfaction of law ; or 
that forgiveness may, in some instances, be made, 
and properly made, with absolutely no regard 
whatever to the matter of the satisfaction of law. 

This is wholly a mistake. Carefully considered, 
in every case of forgiveness by the administrator 
of law (king, president, or governor,) there is re- 
gard had to the satisfaction of the law. I admit 
that the ways in which satisfaction is made, and 



158 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the kinds of satisfaction which are judged sufficient* 
are such as would not always bear close and exact 
scrutiny ; i.e., these ways and these kinds of satis- 
faction may bear the marks of human imperfection. 
But imperfect as they may be, they nevertheless 
stand as witnesses for the principle that satisfac- 
tion is required in every case of true and proper 
forgiveness. Let it be observed that the ways 
and kinds of satisfaction may be very various, and 
often only approximate, and the forgiveness which 
is granted in view of these — confessedly inade- 
quate satisfactions, or provisions for satisfaction, 
often a fond hope merely — may be forgiveness 
which is hopefully interpreted and commended by 
the community. 

Consent to analyze one or two cases in illustra- 
tion of these positions. A minor, a lad it may be, 
of good parentage, is apprehended, tried, found 
guilty, and sentenced to imprisonment for a term 
of years. After a few months of his imprisonment 
a movement is made for his release. The ruler is 
appealed to to grant a pardon. Now, on what 
grounds? What pleas do they make who are 
bestirring themselves with the view of securing 
the pardon ? Do they give no consideration to the 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 159 

matter of the proper satisfaction of the law in that 
case? Consider closely what they do; what pleas 
they bring ; on what grounds they rest their hopes 
of securing the forgiveness, the pardon. In all 
candor they do nothing ; they make no plea ; they 
cherish no hope that is not based upon their ability 
to show in some way that there is already such 
provision for, or assurance of, or hope of, satisfac- 
tion of law, as will render it admissible that release 
be granted. It will be urged that already the con- 
demned one has suffered or paid the penalty. And 
why so? The penalty was five years, and the lad 
has served scarcely five months. But it will be 
said, he is not a base wretch, and considering his 
parentage and his standing, the little time he has 
been imprisoned has been as great a suffering as 
would five years for a stolid and base-born son of 
some thieving tribe. 

Without pursuing in detail all those familiar 
pleas and considerations which are set forth, and 
which "have weight" with the pardoning power 
and with the community, it is enough to say that 
these are all reducible to three classes: (i) Such 
as go to show that in this case the literal penalty 
was too severe. (2; Such as go to show how 



l6o MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the truly deserved penalty has already been met. 
(3) That reasonable assurance is now afforded 
that what the law seeks and demands will be 
granted. In short, under honest, careful, and 
strict analysis, all that was done, all that is 
pleaded, all that is relied on to induce pardon 
or release, is on the ground that sufficient satis- 
faction, or guarantee of satisfaction, has been 
given to warrant the release of the condemned. 

Let it not be thought that the manifestly inade- 
quate or merely approximate payment of penalty, 
and the bare presumption or hope of conformity to 
the law in time to come, on the grounds of which 
man forgives his fellow-man, creates the least pre- 
sumption that a like provision or partial or probable 
satisfaction of law may or can prevail when the 
question is of true and perfect forgiveness granted 
by the Lord himself; for he can grant forgiveness 
in no case except where forgiveness ought to be 
granted. This no one will claim is true of any, 
even the wisest and best of human rulers. While 
man must act upon probabilities, and must accept 
what is manifestly not a full and exact satisfaction, 
or rather, while man cannot assume to know in 
every case what is a true, proper, and full satisfac- 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. l6l 

tion, it must be remembered that with God there 
can be neither of these. 

But what deserves attention is that man, in his 
whole conduct, in dealing with this matter, clearly 
indicates that true and proper and full satisfaction 
of law is required. And his acceptance of that 
which is only the presumption of satisfaction for 
the past offence ; and his acceptance also of that 
which is the mere promise or presumptive guar- 
antee of conformity in time to come, must not be 
interpreted as giving sanction to the principle that 
anything can be called or ''regarded" as a sat- 
isfaction that is not in the strictest sense a satis- 
faction, true, proper, and gloriously perfect and 
complete ; or to the principle that a fallible promise 
or guarantee of conformity to law can be accepted 
by God as a ground of release or pardon or forgive- 
ness. For by man, by human rulers, pardon is 
granted on the presumption that the penalty has 
been sufficient, and on the ground that the guaran- 
tee of obedience in time to come is sufficient, so that 
forgiveness granted on this ground is rather an 
argument to prove that true and proper forgiveness 
must be only when true and proper and full satis- 
faction has been assured — both by payment of 



l62 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the full penalty, and guarantee and more than 
guarantee of obedience, even the perfecting "for- 
ever by one offering. " Man insists upon full satis- 
faction, sees the propriety of it, grants pardon on 
the ground of it, only he confessedly is not able 
in every case either to decide what is a true and 
proper satisfaction, and quite as plainly is he un- 
able to say when such satisfaction has been ren- 
dered. But observe : In all cases in which the 
satisfaction demanded is definite and clearly within 
man's ken, it is rigidly insisted on — as in the case 
of debt or fine payable in money. 

Some Trivial Objections Considered. 

I am aware that there are grown persons, able- 
bodied persons, presumably sane persons, who 
when confronted with what to them seems a rash 
and unwarranted assertion that all forgiveness, all 
mercy in its very nature involves and requires pro- 
vision for the satisfaction of law, will descend to 
the murky atmosphere of that kind of forgiveness 
which one man asks and another gets from his 
neighbor when any little offence or injury is re- 
ceived or inflicted, thus : a man insults me, and 
I not only do not resent it, but I forgive him ; or, 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 163 

a man slanders me, and I forgive him. Where is 
there any satisfaction of law in these and like 
cases of forgiveness? 

To argue gravely against objections of this kind 
requires more grace than for almost any other 
Christian duty. "Two mites which make a far- 
thing" — a farthing, then, pays a debt, satisfies a 
note or bond, always and perfectly — provided the 
note or bond call for no more than " two mites 
which make a farthing." In that case there is the 
full and perfect satisfaction of the law, followed by 
reinstatement and all the blessed results of deliver- 
ance from debt and from the condemnation of the 
law — and of conscience as well — which debt — 
and this wholly irrespective of its amount — always 
involves. 

If your companion inflict some slight injury — 
out of carelessness — which is culpable and for- 
bidden by the law, certainly by the divine law — 
and hasten to say, "I beg pardon," and you on 
your part, as in duty bound, hasten to reply, grant- 
ing pardon. Yes, with a pleasant smile, even while 
the anguish from the injury you have received 
extends from the sole of your foot to the crown of 
your head, you, because you are good and of a 



164 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

forgiving spirit, blandly, and in the kindest terms, 
grant the pardon sought. " Lo, here have we not 
full, free, unconditional pardon, direct forgiveness, 
and no thought of, or regard to, or provision for, 
satisfaction of law?" "Triumphantly (have we 
not?) established the doctrine of forgiveness with- 
out satisfaction of law?" (They compel us to 
argue and contend for this inch of ground — they 
trifle — they throw dust. Shall we follow them 
this once?) 

My dear forgiving friend, consent to be a phil- 
osopher for the occasion. Consider and analyze 
the least and most trifling case in which one 
rational — I mean human — being says "I beg" 
and another replies " I grant " pardon. 

He who begs is always presumed to have 
already suffered at least the full penalty of his 
transgression. Assuredly if it could be shown — 
if it were but suspected — that he had suffered 
nothing, or had suffered very little, in his mind, in 
his feelings — not to say in his conscience — on 
account of his transgression ; if it were made clear 
as daylight that he had suffered nothing whatever, 
surely no sane one would reply " I grant pardon." 
Rather, surely even he would not have the hardi- 
hood to say '* I beg pardon." 



FORGIVENESS WITHOUT SATISFACTION. 165 

Seriously, pardon, even in such cases, is asked 
and granted on the presumption that the full pen- 
alty of the offence has been endured. Indeed it 
would not be difficult to maintain that penalty over 
and above the strict requirement of law and of 
conscience had actually been suffered by the high- 
minded and kind-hearted friend who had inflicted 
even so slight an injury upon his fellow-man. 
And as for the assurance or guarantee of conform- 
ity to the high and universal and most just and 
admirable law — forbidding even such trifling in- 
jury — this is presumed to be every way perfect, 
complete and satisfactory. For how preposterous, 
how meaningless, how impertinent, would be the 
words " I beg " or the response " I grant," on any 
other supposition or presumption than that there 
was an honest and downright purpose and en- 
deavor — amounting to a satisfactory promise, 
pledge or guarantee — that in time to come this 
kind of offence should be scrupulously avoided. 

In all candor and in all seriousness, then, I main- 
tain that in those instances which are so flippantly 
adduced, such as, " If a man insult me and I for- 
give him, what satisfaction of law is there in the 
matter?" " If a man inflict injury, if he slander 



l66 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

me, if he strike me, and I forgive him, how can 
it be shown that any regard is had in such cases to 
the satisfaction of the law?" There is always the 
presumption confidently made and constantly re- 
garded on all hands, that there is in good faith 
satisfaction of law, both in its demand of proper 
and full penalty and in its demand of conformity, 
or pledge and assurance and guarantee of con- 
formity in time to come. And never would any- 
one in his right mind grant pardon or forgiveness 
for the least offence, insult, or injury, unless on 
such presumption and such assurance or guaran- 
tee. For consider, who would pardon an insult, 
an offence, an injury, even the slightest, if the one 
guilty should say, " I am not at all sorry for what 
I have done. I have suffered nothing in my mind 
on account of the insult, injury, or offence ; and 
farther, I shall in no respect consider myself as 
bound to avoid the like in time to come"? Who 
cannot see that it is because the very opposite of 
this is, on sufficient grounds, believed and assumed 
that pardon or forgiveness in such cases is ever 
granted. " If thy brother recent, forgive him" 



I 



PART 



MERCY 



IN 



ITS ADMINISTRATION 

167 



CHAPTER I. 

UNTRIED VIRTUE. 

Untried virtue in creatures is purely imagi- 
nary. We know of no moral beings except such 
as were exposed to real and great trial. We may 
imagine that the angels, and also our first parents, 
might have been holy and happy had they never 
encountered any real or hazardous trial of their 
loyalty, their true subjection to the will of God. 
But had there been a way so easy and plain, surely 
it would have been opened before them. Must we 
not be admonished by what we are, in so solemn a 
manner, taught at the very beginning? The ques- 
tion so early and so solemnly set before us is the 
question "Wherein consists virtue?" Should we 
not first of all take note of the way in which virtue 
began to be shown? What was required at the 
very outset? What was the characteristic of the 
first rewardable act of the creature, and may it 

169 



I70 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

be wanting in any subsequent act? Why was the 
great trial so soon set before our race (and how 
soon it was set before angels we do not know) ? 
Dare we say it was unnecessary? That the ex- 
posing of angels and of the newly created pair, in 
their innocence and inexperience, to trial was in 
no respect inconsistent with the character of One 
infinite in goodness we must not for a moment call 
in question. Surely if the trial was unnecessary, 
that is, if real virtue could be exemplified and 
enacted and confirmed without trial, it was not 
consistent with the revealed character of God to 
expose to such trial. The fact that God brought 
angels and men face to face with such trial is proof 
that such trial was necessary. 

Causing them to meet trial was an exemplifica- 
tion of God's wisdom and of his good-will. For 
the possibility of virtue, with its glorious rewards, 
is linked with the possibility of evil, with its dire 
and dreadful doom. Life and death, good and 
evil, hope and fear, set before all creatures. 
Goodness in a creature is goodness because it 
is departure from evil ; a departure, too, which 
costs effort and which involves trial. Goodness 
is a victory, but victory presupposes conflict. 



UNTRIED VIRTUE. 171 

These were conquerors ; these are conquerors — 
" more than conquerors." They wear their laurels 
and their crowns, not alone for what they were 
and what they did, but for what they are and for 
what they do. In the very genesis of creaturely 
goodness, then, there is trial. It is a triumph 
which presupposes trial. Light is glorious indeed. 
But all light is light which shineth out of darkness. 
Nay, I dare say the sweetest soul on earth cannot 
imagine light without preimagining darkness, out 
of which it shineth. If light be not, then darkness 
must be. If darkness could not be, then what- 
ever might be could not be the light that is. 

But if the genesis of virtue be trial, if without 
this there could be no beginning of virtue, let no 
one imagine that trial — the condition of virtue's 
genesis — can wholly disappear ; so that virtue 
shall at length bear no relation whatever to that 
which, as we have seen, was essential to its very 
existence at the first. 

That any creatures were so constituted that their 
being virtuous should cost them nothing, no effort, 
no self-restraint, no self-denial, but should be 
simply and in all things the pleasing of self, 
though it is a notion that is in itself supremely 



172 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

absurd, and one that is without the slightest 
foundation in aught that man on earth observes 
or experiences, is yet a notion that has been 
marvellously prevalent and that mightily pleases 
multitudes of persons otherwise quite sane and 
sensible. 

This conception of goodness or virtue is by no 
means a harmless delusion. Indeed there is rea- 
son to think that it was just this delusion that led 
to rebellion on earth, if not to that among the 
ana-els in heaven. 

That this view or notion of virtue should have 
deceived at first, and that it should prevail in the 
face of all the awful warnings and solemn lessons 
of human experience and observation, as well as 
in the face of the 'teachings of Scripture, from 
Genesis to Revelation ; but above all, in the very 
light of the one perfect example of virtue set before 
mankind, and before all intelligent beings in the 
universe; example of virtue which, so far from 
consisting in doing his own will, consisted in the 
perpetual surrender of his will. " Not mine own 
willy but the will of Him that sent me." " Even 
Christ -pleased not himself" is enough to suggest, 
if not to prove, that it is a view or notion which 



UNTRIED VIRTUE. 1 73 

has marvellous plausibility, and is suited to de- 
ceive and to lead on to ruin. Thus : 

" Make a being every way perfect, will he not 
do right even as water runs down its open channel 
towards the sea?" "Will not all his powers, 
faculties, emotions, desires, inclinations, propensi- 
ties, aspirations, — in short, all that he is — tend 
always in the direction of pure and perfect virtue 
or goodness? Will he not always and necessarily, 
since he is every way perfect, move towards virtue 
in the one direct line, the 'nearest way ' thereto ? 
For if he should not, or if he should even find 
that he were in any respect inclined, disposed, or 
tempted to diverge from such direct line, would 
it not be proof that he were not absolutely perfect, 
not altogether good or holy?" "The created 
being who finds always the direct and full gratifi- 
cation of all that is in him in doing what and all 
that ought to be done by him, is he not clearly 
superior to the created being who finds that it costs 
him strenuous endeavor, heroic self-restraint, self- 
denial, and self-sacrifice?" Such is the fool's phil- 
osophy of goodness. Blind, totally blind, it would 
seem, to the great truth which the history of our 
race, from the dawn of time, was designed to teach 



174 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and emphasize; viz., that virtue consists in doing 
the will of God — and this in those things which, 
in the nature of the case, involve the not -pleasing 
of self — and in acting with supreme regard to the 
good of others. 

To do what is right, and to do at the same time 
just what one pleases, is a manifest contradiction. 
If that were called virtue, it would be virtue only 
in name ; it would lack the very substance of 
virtue ; it would be neither praiseworthy nor 
rewardable. 

When we say that " in the very nature of the 
case " there could be no virtue unless the will 
were free, and unless there were the possibility of 
choice ; i.e., unless there were a right and a wrong 
way open before the rational and accountable 
being ; we must not, by this, mean to assert that 
this essential condition of the existence of virtue 
was determined by a self-existent nature of things, 
determined before created things existed, deter- 
mined independently of the divine will, and even 
independently of the divine existence. " Of him 
are all things." What virtue is, God, by what he 
is — not excluding, but including, his will — deter- 
mined. If we ask why could there not be virtue 



UNTRIED VIRTUE. 1 75 

in creatures and yet neither liability nor possibility 
of a fall, the answer is to be found nowhere short 
of the nature of God himself; the true answer cart 
be found nowhere else. 

To say that virtue in its nature requires free- 
dom of will, and therefore possibility of an evil 
choice, is to say what does not even touch the real 
question. For the real question is, How was the 
nature of virtue determined? Now if there be a 
Supreme Being in whom virtue or goodness is 
infinite, he cannot but be the Author of all, the 
One " of whom are all things," and the Sole 
Standard of virtue. And also it is plain that if 
there be not such Being who is Author and Stand- 
ard of virtue, then virtue is but a name. 

Herbert Spencer (and indeed all the consistent 
agnostics of all ages) logically reaches precisely 
this conclusion. In his " Evolution of Morals" 
he naively and with ludicrous confidence proceeds 
to prove that virtue is only doing what by the 
experience of mankind has been proven or judged 
to be profitable, and admits that if what by the 
judgment of mankind are regarded as the grossest 
of evils — theft, robbery, and the like — had but 
proved in the long run profitable, mankind would 
have regarded these as virtuous and praiseworthy. 



176 MKRCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Both theoretically and practically this amounts 
to the denial of virtue altogether. 

Loud are the praises of virtue by the deniers 
of God. Yet the virtue which they praise — even 
by their own confession — is but a figment of the 
brain, is but what is proved to be, or rather what 
is "judged" to be, most profitable ; and surely no 
agnostic will pretend that man's judgment in this 
matter is infallible ; rather is it not the burden of 
their lives to show how very frail and unreliable 
are the conclusions to which the multitude of man- 
kind have come as regards this very question : 
What is right? What is virtue? 

The world has had abundant evidence that 
any people who adopt atheistic philosophy incon- 
tinently trample under their feet the very finest 
theory of virtue which the human mind can devise. 

The virtue to which God calls all moral beings 
is virtue which costs effort, self-restraint, self- 
denial ; virtue which is a departure from evil, a 
triumph over evil. 

Even if we could persuade ourselves that there 
might have been virtue which did cost nothing, 
no effort, no self-denial, no resistance of evil, 
surely even we can somewhat clearly see that it 



UNTRIED VIRUTE. 1*]*] 

had been virtue which could not for a moment 
stand side by side with the virtue which God 
bringeth forth ' * seven times refined " from the fur- 
nace of "fiery trial" 

The Security 

of . ' 
The. Redeemed. 

What marks the boundary? What lies between 
us and the abyss of infinite evil ? A wall of ada- 
mant? No, not even a river or a rivulet. How, 
then, from evil can we be forever free? Ah! 
" Depart from evil and do good." But know, oh 
man, thou canst do good only as thou dost depart 
from evil ! He who in his word bids man depart 
from evil hath placed man in a universe where this 
commandment is required. Only in the universe 
that is could this command be obeyed. Nor think 
ever in thy silly heart : " The time is coming when 
I shall no longer need to keep myself from evil." 

Abraham and Elijah, Gabriel and Michael, what 
separates them from the infinite abyss of evil? A 
Chinese wall? No. Their holy purpose, their 
perpetual aim, their unceasing effort to depart from 
evil and do good. "Confirmed?" Yes, con- 



178 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

firmed in holiness ; but their confirmation is not 
only, not apart from, but by means of their virtue. 
God's and their own agency alike conspire and 
operate — but only within — to keep them from 
evil. They are kept from evil. There is, then, 
evil actual and possible, wherefrom they may 
depart, may keep themselves free. For, to be just 
what they are, if evil were neither actual nor 
possible, would be short of true virtue — rather, 
just what they are, they, in that case, could not 
have been. 

Trial and triumph, indeed. But what is triumph 
but trial transformed, trial gloriously and vic- 
toriously encountered. " Kept their first estate." — 
" Kept not their first estate" — "Kept," by one 
holy choice; "Kept not" by one evil choice. . . 
Ah! "Kept" by one choice maintained, fro- 
longed to eternity. Victory is victory won indeed, 
but it remains victory only as it is held and main- 
tained by that very same courage and heroism 
and all the noble qualities by which it was first 
achieved. 

Even were there no gracious assurance, no 
promise of divine keeping, trial once triumphantly 
passed, the assurance of its permanent gain would 



UNTRIED VIRTUE. 179 

in this case increase as time passes. This alone, 
one might say, could not but amount to virtual or 
practical confirmation.* But God hath given 
above this, his word, his spirit. Yes, he hath 
admitted his redeemed into intimate, even vital 
relation to himself, so that all good is indeed 
assured, and this assurance is precious and wel- 
come because it is in this wondrous way afforded. 
" Because 1 live ye shall live also."" " Christ who 
is our life." " Your life is hid with Christ in 
God." " / in them and thou in me that they may 
be one in us" " As the living Father hath sent 
me and I live by the father \ even so he that eateth 
me shall live by me." 

The dream of virtue or goodness or holiness 
which shall consist in laying down the oars, while 
thy bark on gentle current glides forward to limit- 
less bliss, is a dream indeed. Hint or hope of 
this, neither heaven nor earth affords. The con- 
querors — and all good beings are such — enter 

* The tendency to fixedness of character is the most solemn 
lesson mortal man has set before him in this world; though 
little heeded, and though but partially appreciated by those 
who give to it some serious attention. "To him that hath shall 
be given ; from him that hath not shall be taken away," contains 
it all. Who can grasp the full meaning of these words? 



l8o MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

upon their reward, secure, hold and enjoy their 
reward, only as they continue to be conquerors. 
" The same mind " is " in them " still. Evermore, 
even in the eternal ages, as well as in this life, 
" they depart from evil," and departing from evil, 
6i do good." The evil they refused here they 
evermore refuse, and because of this they " do 
good" and " have their reward." 

The painfulness of the act and effort whereby 
evil is in this life forsaken, is not necessarily con- 
nected with the departure from evil. Rather, 
virtue's crown and glory is in that this departure 
may be not only painless, but joyous. Of this 
even in this life there are not wanting hope-inspir- 
ing hints and foreshadowings. "The pleasures 
of sin " heroic and heaven-attracted souls have 
been able to abandon and flee from with alacrity, 
aye, with joy and ecstasy. 

Trial transforms itself into triumph, rather than 
ceases to be. The atmosphere of trial wherein 
virtue was born, is that wherein virtue must live 
forevermore. Danger past, indeed, but existent, 
though past. Man was created with the view that 
he might triumph — not once and then an end of 
triumph, but once for all, and then no end of tri- 



UNTRIED VIRTUE. I»I 

umfik. Man was made that he might triumph 
evermore over evil ; and that his preordained trial 
(though once a dark cloud and threatening), trans- 
formed into triumph, might remain, illumined and 
glorified with eternal splendor. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 

, Many persist in assuming that a perfect uni- 
verse must be one wherein neither sin nor suffering 
entered, or could enter ; that a really superior 
universe — one without sin or suffering — is not 
only conceivable, but might have been. They 
cannot, then, really regard as the highest and the 
best the One who created and who governs the 
actual universe, with what of light and darkness it 
contains. They cannot, then, really believe that 
this actual universe, considered as a whole, is one 
which conforms accurately to the ideal and thought 
and purpose of a perfect Creator. On the contrary 
they must hold that it is a second-rate universe ; 
and one which needs to be apologized for, one 
whose defects or evils must be accounted for on 
the ground that these arise from a necessity, or 
a nature of things, self-existent and independent 
182 



who 'is responsible? 183 

of God; or from the caprice of creatures who, by 
virtue of the free agency given them, were able 
to thwart, defeat, mar, interfere with, or modify 
the divine plan and work. 

No attempt should be made to explain the 
mystery of evil, either as to its origin, its continu- 
ance or its outcome. But we must not assume 
that " a necessity from without" determined any- 
thing ; or that the Creator of the actual universe 
encountered anything which determined his choice ; 
any law, any nature of things which rendered this 
or that necessary. For manifestly any law, any 
nature of things prevailing, he himself ordained. 
The easy solution — " Free agents could not but 
be liable to error ; a universe with the possibility 
of sin and suffering is the only kind of universe 
which in the nature of the case is possible" — is 
worthless. It is worse ; for it assumes that the 
Maker of the actual universe simply did the best 
he could, considering the restrictions under which 
he is assumed to have acted. 

Since the perfect Creator and perfect universe 
not only are not, but must be despaired of, men 
are fain to accept and be reconciled to a second 
choice. Here at last they will stand. Stoutly will 



184 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

they maintain against all comers, that the highest 
and best actually existing — or as they judge the 
best possible, since even the Supreme must be 
restricted by a necessity existing independently 
of him — must be one who shall insure that in the 
end no violator of law shall perish, but sooner or 
later all shall be restored to righteousness and 
blessedness. This assuredly is the ground taken 
not only by the Christian sects under various names 
who have held the doctrine of universalism, but it 
is the ground of the vast majority of all the deniers 
of Scripture. That is, they start with the assump- 
tion that the universe as it now is, is far short of 
what it might have been ; but notwithstanding this 
all will be remedied, so that in the end it will be 
as it ought to have been and might have been 
from the first. 

Others driven from even this high ( ?) ground 
by the astounding facts set before all, as also by 
the fearfully plain declarations of Scripture re- 
garding the doom of the impenitent, seek to secure 
for themselves at least this standing-ground : The 
Deity, the best possible (therefore the actual), must 
be one who shall provide for the very largest 
number being saved from the consequences of 
their sin and foil}'. 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 1 85 

This is a flimsy subterfuge which one would 
think could not possibly afford even temporary 
relief to a poor mortal who is exercised with need- 
less jealousy for the honor and glory of the Creator 
and Ruler of the actual universe. For the ques- 
tion is not at all in regard to the number of those 
who as violators of law, and as impenitent, must 
suffer, but simply as to the fact that there are vio- 
lators of law who do suffer. It implies that the 
suffering of impenitent violators of law is in itself 
a discredit to the universe and to the Maker of the 
universe ; but since it cannot be abated or wholly 
eliminated, we must by all means reduce it to 
a minimum. Indeed the notion of a future proba- 
tion, as also of ultimate restoration of all violators 
of law, is a manifest subterfuge, and one that van- 
ishes like mist before the light of the sun. For in 
this case the question that is really serious is not the 
number of those who must suffer punishment, nor 
yet the extent or duration of punishment, but the 
punishment itself — the punishment for the shortest 
possible period of time. Minds that revolt at the 
doctrine of endless punishment ought to give due 
attention to the temporal punishment, which none 
can deny, as witnessed and experienced in this 



J 86 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

life, and when the spectacle of the multitudinous • 
woes which violators of law experience in this life 
shall have been accounted for and explained so that 
it no longer is unsupportable, future retribution will 
be no longer incredible.* 

Under all these unsupported beliefs lies this 
fallacy, namely : That infinite goodness, which 
might have ensured — not to say which ought to 
have ensured — the standing of all, is pledged, if 
not to ensure universal restoration, or make final 
apostacy an impossibility, at least to ensure the 
restoration of nearly all the lapsed. . . But this is 
to maintain that to be merciful is not merely to 
provide and offer mercy and a way of deliverance, 
but to ensure that such offer shall be accepted. 
Indeed this is the one fallacy which lies at the root 
of all the fierce and confident dogmatism of the 

* " It would not consist with infinite love to give one 
moment's needless uneasiness. Facts demonstrate to all who 
will allow God to be infinite injustice and goodness that dura- 
ble sufferings may be inflicted consistently with those perfec- 
tions. Complicated and long-continued miseries are very 
common, and death, the most dread, d of all temporal evils, 
cannot possibly be avoided. . . . This seems to bring matters 
to extremities ; for if the greatest punishment which God hath 
threatened to inflict on sinners in this world never fails to be 
executed, who can prove, or even probably conjecture, that the 
Lord will not accomplish his most tremendous denunciations 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 187 

new theologians, the opposers of evangelical doc- 
trine in our day, as in all the former ages. 

The opposers of evangelical doctrine confidently 
assume that God will sooner or later ensure that all 
moral beings shall make good and wise choice, 
shall cease to do evil, and learn to do well. This 
is to maintain that God himself, by his own act, 
shall cause and ensure that the choice and change, 
acknowledgedly essential to salvation, shall occur. 
This assumption is not only made in the face of all 
Scripture, but in the face of all that we are taught 
in the course of nature and providence ; for what 
does Scripture, from beginning to end, teach, 
what does the history of our race teach, what do 

of eternal misery?" — Scott's Sermons Sermo?i IV., " God is 
Love." 

Yes; it is demonstrated that to allow much suffering may be 
consistent with the attributes of an infinitely perfect Being. 

It would be well for those who so confidently insist that the 
divine character is itself a pledge that there cannot be eternal 
suffering, if they would meet the real difficulty, which is not 
about eternal but about temporal suffering. 

Death is (so far as this life is concerned) final. The sinner, 
punished during all his present life, and the punishment ended 
by the infliction of death (apart from any light otherwise shed 
on the transaction), surely gives no hint of a necessary restora- 
tion. 

If it is well there should be utmost hope, may it not be well 
that there should be utmost fear? 



l88 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, 

conscience and consciousness perpetually proclaim, 
if not that the creature endowed with free will, 
and not God, who endowed with free will, is re- 
sponsible?* In fact, this is the solemn lesson 
which the whole history of moral beings, good or 
bad, is designed to impress on us so that it shall 
never for a moment be forgotten. 

It is true, and all the saved now and evermore 
confess it with never-ending wonder and joy, that 
it is of God's mercy and grace unto and in them, 
that they have been enabled to accept the mercy 
provided for them and offered to them. But what 
God doeth for, unto and in those who accept and 
those who reject his mercy, be it what it may, 
never amounts to an invasion of, much less to 
an extinguishment of, the freedom of the will or 
of the responsibility necessarily connected there- 
with. 

The theology that holds Judas blameworthy for 
rejecting, must not hesitate to concede to John 
praiseworthiness for accepting, his Lord. The 

* The denial of man's responsibility and the belief that our 
Maker is responsible for the ensuring of our well-being is by no 
means a rare thing. It is the habitual tenet of almost all those 
who reject the Bible and the Gospel offer. And even those who 
are given up to the basest passions or the most abandoned lives 



who is responsible: 109 

orthodox are apt to take extreme ground on this 
matter, thinking this to be the safe side of the 
perilous path ; forgetting that there is no safe side. 
Any theology or philosophy which, reaching back, 
assumes to subject to severe analysis that primal 
choice which is determinative of destiny, cannot 
blame Judas without commending John. For the 
determinative choice, whensoever made, is a choice 
which is the act of the chooser, the responsibility 
for which can be laid nowhere else than upon the 
personal will of him who makes the choice. It is 
a mistake to suppose that the praiseworthiness of 
the work of him w 7 ho in any way causes or enables 
the will of another to choose wisely is dependent 
upon the passiveness ( ?) of him whose will is thus 
influenced or caused to act. The praiseworthiness 
of the act of him who in any way causes a wise 
choice to be made by another is chiefly in this, 
that such choice is the act of the willing and free 
agent. This is the highest commendation and 
glory of that grace which maketh willing, as well 

are ever striving to quiet their consciences and enliven their 
hopes by saying, " He made us with these strong passions and 
he allowed us to be exposed to these temptations, and he will be 
'easy with us.'" This and all like language simply means, 
" We are not responsible ; our Maker is." 



I90 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

as of the act of him who, being made willing, 
willeth. Nor is there any ground to hesitate in 
regarding the right choice thus made as virtue, the 
wrong as sin ; the right choice as praiseworthy, 
the wrong as blameworthy ; the right choice as 
rewardable, the wrong as punishable ; the right 
choice as certain to be rewarded, the wrong as 
certain to be punished — and in either case, by 
necessity, eternally so. For we are considering 
solely that choice which is determinative. And 
surely no one will contend that there is not, much 
less that there cannot be, a choice which is deter- 
minative or final. 

" Not unto us, not unto us, but to Thy name be 
the glory," assuredly is and shall be forevermore 
the song of the redeemed. " We receive the. just 
reward of our deeds," will be the confession, the 
wail, of the lost. But as the wail of the lost does 
not reduce to zero the divine sovereignty, so 
neither does the song of the redeemed reduce to 
zero the most praiseworthy, the most rewardable, 
the most rewarded act of the human will. 

Because we cannot see how divine sovereignty 
and man's freedom of will and real responsibility, 
can be exemplified and can have full and perfect 



who is responsible: 191 

sway and scope, can exist in their entireness, either 
in the one case or in the other; either in the case of 
those who choose and act wisely and are rewarded, 
or those who choose and act foolishly and sinfully 
and are punished, we must not hesitate to accept 
it as true, and as to us plainly and undeniably true 
that they do exist and do perfectly harmonize. 
What if these two truths are learned by us in their 
separateness? What if by a special road man 
comes to each? He has the most absolute assur- 
ance that he is free, and that he is accountable. 
He has absolute assurance that God is sovereign. 
Now, having these, he has the same absolute assur- 
ance that there is perfect harmony of these. For 
he cannot really believe these separate truths with- 
out believing that they do harmonize. To doubt 
of their harmonizing is to weaken in our faith as 
to the truth of one, if not of both the propositions. 
So that it is only by mere childish, inconsistent, 
incomplete thinking that any one can call in ques- 
tion the harmonizing of sovereignty of God and 
liberty of man, even while the comprehending of 
this, as to how it can be, remains a confessed 
mystery and one the solution of which scarcely 
admits a ray of hope. For self-evident is it that 



I92 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

the moment he questions the harmony or coexist- 
ence of these truths, he lapses from one or both of 
the truths at first so confidently held. 

All good is indeed of God. But the goodness 
which is of God may be also of his own ; for he 
worketh in them to will and to do. The cause of 
their willing and doing is divine grace. But 
causes do not ante-date effects. That which is 
moved, moves — moves as soon as it is moved. 
This is true of the movement of mind, by that 
agency which alone can move mind ; even as it is 
true of the movement of a stone, by that only kind 
of agency by which a stone can be moved. The 
passiveness of a stone in its being moved, does not 
argue the passiveness of the mind in its being 
moved ; for the stone moves as a stone, and the 
mind as a mind. 

Passive in regeneration? Passive in beginning 
to live? It is an absurdity. It is a contradiction. 
It is a solecism. For, beginning to live is begin- 
ning to be active. Beginning to live is beginning 
to act. God causeth all life ; but there is no life of 
any kind that is not itself, even in its beginning to 
be, active — active not after, but in its beginning 
to be, i.e., to live. The words " passive in re- 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE.' I93 

generation " can mean no more than that man does 
not regenerate himself; that the cause and origin 
of regeneration, is divine power and grace. Thus 
understood it is worthy of all acceptation. 

Any notion of sovereignty which would rob the 
first act of its praiseworthiness, its rewardableness, 
would, with equal reason, reduce all after acts to 
the same level. The action of grace is not such as 
leaves no room for the action of him who is its 
subject. Rather grace consists in causing and 
enabling its subject to act. Grace begins by 
causing its subjects to act. Out of, it may be, a 
very laudable motive — that of exalting divine 
grace — men, good and wise men, have believed 
and taught a doctrine respecting man's inability, 
man's natural impotence, and God's sovereign 
efficacious grace, which will not stand. Great and 
good theologians of the most orthodox school have 
inclined to the right hand while travelling along 
this narrow way, as though danger were on the 
left hand and none on the right ; as though all 
that could be said in disparagement of man should 
redound to the honor and praise of his Creator and 
Redeemer ; forgetting that God is honored by the 
clear recognition not only of that which he doeth 



194 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, 

for his redeemed, but by that which they do who 
are " his workmanship," that which they do in the 
exercise of the power with which he has endowed 
them, and by means of that grace which he affords 
them ; and this, though such exercise, while mak- 
ing possible a glorious destiny, also makes possi- 
ble a fearful doom. 

The possibility of virtue in finite beings is, in 
the nature of the case, conditioned on the pos- 
sibility of wrong-doing. No act could be praise- 
worthy were there but one way of acting. For in 
that case there could be no act of choice ; the will 
could not come into play at all. A universe of 
moral beings with freedom of will and with re- 
sponsibility and yet exposed to no danger (since 
even a single wrong choice was rendered im- 
possible, rendered impossible either by the con- 
stitution of the beings having free will, or by 
continual guardianship from without) is a purely 
imaginary universe, and one very unlike the 
actual as made known to us either by what we 
observe in nature and in the course of providence 
or what we read in revelation or what we en- 
counter in our experience. 

Very solemn is the question : What and how 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? I95 

much is it competent to any being to do in the 
way of determining the will of another? This 
question must not be summarily answered or 
summarily dismissed. It reaches down to very 
practical questions of daily life. There is no 
escape from this question. It compels an answer. 
The only choice is between a thoughtful and well- 
considered answer and a mere assumption. Many 
who shrink from the study of this question as one 
too high for them — imagining that they are thereby 
showing much humility — though it may be un- 
consciously, do confidently assume and act upon 
a view of this question which is not only without 
foundation, but which they could not but see to be 
so would they but give to it what it so manifestly 
deserves and requires, even their best powers. 

Will in its own nature is influenced — is influ- 
encible only by motive. 

Authority or commandment of the great or of 
the greatest hath nothing to do in influencing the 
will. It is not a limitation of authority or of com- 
mandment that it hath no direct power to deter- 
mine the will. For authority, in its own nature, 
not only hath no assignable relation to, or fitness 
for, such influencing, but authority can be — can 



I96 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

have room for its proper exercise — only on con- 
dition that there be, and in so far as there be, 
wills which are free and are moved — are movable 
— solely by motive. 

Power, like authority, hath no direct access to 
the will. Power taketh not hold of the will at 
all. Indeed, to imagine power or authority, or 
even power and authority — whether these be finite 
or infinite — to move or influence will is quite as 
absurd as to imagine space and duration to move 
material objects. It is no disparagement of space 
and duration that they do not stir a leaf or an 
atom. It is their glory that they do nothing of the 
kind ; that they overarch, encompass and hold in 
their embrace, but neither perceptibly not imper- 
ceptibly, move any created object, great or small. 
The greatness, wisdom, glory, goodness of God 
ensures every will in the universe from the possi- 
bility of invasion, and thereby ensures the possibil- 
ity of virtue ; thereby also exalts to the utmost ; 
thereby also imposes real responsibility, responsi- 
bility which he never lifts for an instant, either in 
case of the good or the bad, and which he renders 
it impossible that any other should invade or 
lighten, much less remove. Power and authority 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 197 

deal indeed with creatures endowed with free will, 
yet so as to maintain uninvaded and inviolable 
their freedom. Neither of these touch the will on 
the one side or on the other. 

Power to make willing, by presenting motives, 
and also by a wholly inexplicable influence which 
one mind may exert upon another, belongs indeed 
in greater or less degree to every moral being, to 
all who themselves have free will. This power is 
unlimited onlv in the case of him who is the head 

ml 

and source of all authority. Yet we are not to 
assume that he makes willing in any way unlike 
that in which other authorities under him make 
willing. 

Scripture, which always sets forth the plenitude 
and effectiveness of divine power in making will- 
ing, very fully and plainly teaches that this is 
done by the word. 

That the infinitude of divine power and wisdom 
not only in the presentation of motives, but influ- 
encing and enabling to "will and do" should 
always and necessarily ensure right choice and 
action, might seem to us reasonable. But the 
solemn lesson of Scripture — and of all history — is 
the resistibility of the utmost motive actually pre- 



I98 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

sented — if not the utmost motive presentable, to 
man. " My spirit shall not always strive." •' Ye 
do always resist." Let it not be thought that in 
maintaining this we maintain a doctrine which at 
all limits the divine power. The notion that mere 
power, were it only' intensified and increased, 
might influence and determine the action of the 
free will, is one without foundation. 

That will in its own nature is moved, is movable 
only by motive, is a truth which must never be lost 
sight of. It is confirmed and illustrated by the 
history of moral beings, fallen and unfallen, by all 
that we know of God's dealings with them before 
or after the fall. 

Leaving out of consideration this truth, exceed- 
ing darkness enshrouds all these dealings ; for 
then the question, Why were wrong determinations 
of the creaturely will permitted? is one unrelieved 
by any consideration within the range of man's 
thoughts ; whereas keeping this in view, whatever 
darkness enshrouds the question, it is assuredly 
clear that in the very nature of the case wrong 
determinations of the will could not but be possi- 
ble, not merely possible but probable ; since will 
in its own nature is moved or movable only by 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 199 

motive, and since knowledge furnishes motive, 
and since this in creatures is necessarily limited, 
how could it be that such continual clear and full 
view should be before the minds of even the high- 
est and best of creatures as to ensure always and 
necessarily wise and right determinations of the 
will? 

I dare, then, maintain that free wills not only 
are and must be exposed to the possibility of a 
fall, but that such fall is even probable. The his- 
tory of the only moral beings known to us surely 
does not contradict this view, but rather confirms 
and illustrates it. 

Will, to be ensured absolutely from error under 
all conceivable circumstances, must be will fur- 
nished with adequate knowledge ; that is, infinite 
knowledge. There is but one will thus furnished. 
The glorious and perfect determinations of the 
divine will, and the consequent infinite excellence 
and praiseworthiness of all the divine acts, must 
not be considered as separate or separable from 
the every way worthy and always infinitely clearly 
seen motive or end. 

If to this view it be objected that creatures could 
not then be absolutely confirmed in righteousness, 



200 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

absolutely ensured against a possible wrong deter- 
mination of the will, I answer : This is just what 
both Scripture and all history, all observation, all 
God's dealings with moral beings most solemnly 
press upon us for our consideration — a fact most 
solemn, indeed, and one that it becomes us to pon- 
der with profound attention, reverence, and awe; 
but instead of casting us down in despair, it should 
inspire us with mtensest desire for that union to 
the glorious Lord wherein all safety, all hope may 
be found ; that union, the possibility of which, it is 
the glory of Scripture to make known to man. 
Relation to God, union to Christ, our being " par- 
takers of the divine nature," our only security. 
Scripture is full of this. And how perfectly does 
this accord with our consciousness of the need of 
divine support. " Hold thou me up." Thus the 
soul crieth. And to this cry how beautifully re- 
spond the promises : *' Fear not, I am with thee."* 
"I will uphold thee." " They shall never fail." 
" Because I live, ye shall live also." 

Not knowing all the reasons for any right act, 
we can be assured that there must be infinite rea- 
sons for any act or course of conduct which God 
commands. Right action, then, in the creature, 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 201 

is the simple acceptance of God's will — a will, of 
course, determined by perfect knowledge of all the 
reasons for the action prescribed — as ours. So 
that holiness consists in the acceptance of God's 
will revealed (that is, in any manner made known 
to us,) as the infinitely perfect reason for our 
action. 

Right action in the case of all beings having 
freedom of will must be action for reasons. To 
make willing must therefore be to enable to -per- 
ceive and appreciate the reasons for action. To 
imagine a moral being made willing and enabled 
to perform a good act without at the same time 
perceiving good and sufficient reasons for such 
act, is to imagine a downright contradiction, a 
pure and manifest absurdity. It is to fall short 
of the conception of a truly virtuous or praise- 
worthy act. For any act is right, not for itself, 
but for the reasons which prompted it and for the 
ends aimed at. Proper reasons and proper ends 
are not mere ornaments of what is in itself good ; 
they are essential elements of what is good. 

In the present life, and under governments such 
as prevail in the present estate, right action, for 
whatever reason or whatever ends, is indeed 



202 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

accepted and even commended and rewarded ; 
but it would be inexcusable to imagine that any 
act can really be acceptable, commendable, and 
rewardable in the sight of God, which is from 
wrong or insufficient reasons or ends ; that any 
act can be virtue which is not for the one great 
reason — God's will ; the one great end — God's 
glory. 

An act good in itself, that is, an act which 
would have been good had it been from right 
motives and right ends, is totally destitute of 
virtue, is neither praiseworthy nor rewardable : 
without these, it is the body without the soul. An 
act may be called good, " good in itself," but it 
is good only when from right motives and right 
ends. Therefore, to make willing to any good 
act, any act truly praiseworthy or rewardable, is 
to cause or enable to act from right motives and 
for right ends. And undeniably the perception 
and appreciation of the motive and the end, both 
logically and psycologically, precede and deter- 
mine the act. Good reasons for any act, or good 
ends to be ensured by it, if these are perceived 
only afte?- the act is performed, in no respect bring 
the slightest credit to the act or the actor. They are 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 203 

too late to betaken into account at all. Therefore, 
power to make willing must consist in these two 
things : — 

1. In presenting or setting before the person 
motive and end. 

2. In enabling to apprehend and appreciate 
these. Therefore, conceding that there is a direct 
agency, power or influence put forth upon man 
making him willing, this must be upon those 
powers of the mind which in their own nature 
govern, control and determine all praiseworthy 
action of the will ; for if the will were turned or 
influenced otherwise than through those- powers, 
the action, so far as character is concerned, could 
not be attributed to the person at all. But in all 
those notable texts of Scripture in which the divine 
power and grace in determining the will are set 
forth, it is always as clearly taught that the will of 
man freely acts as that man is mightily influenced 
by divine power and grace. " Thy -people shall 
be willing in the day of thy power." "It is God 
that worketh in you to will and to do."' These and 
like texts not only imply, but assert the concurrent 
simultaneous, the full and proper action of the will 
of him who is divinely and mightily wrought upon 
or made willing. 



204 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

To make willing unto any good act is not only 
to cause to do that which is in accordance with 
reason, that which is really sustained by good and 
sufficient reasons, but to cause to perceive and act 
from good reason and right end. Nor is it at all a 
contradiction of this view that the most praise- 
worthy act of men in this life are acts which are 
pure and mere obedience to the divine command, 
and this when the reasons, or rather, when all 
ofcher reasons, are hidden from view. For in all 
such cases the ojie reason which the true servant 
of God has clearly and fully set before him, is a 
reason which not only transcends immeasurably, 
infinitely, any and all other reasons (even could 
they be clearly and fully seen), but a reason which 
in itself furnishes the fullest assurance that the act 
is one for which there are infinite reasons, and 
this even though we, for the present, could see 
few or none of them. For whatsoever God com- 
mands, is supported by infinite reasons ; and 
against it, from no quarter can any valid reason 
or objection be brought. In fact, the principle of 
obedience to authority is, that the authority is 
itself the reason for action. Nothing is true 
and proper obedience which falls short of this. 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 205 

Therefore, all fallible authority is to be obeyed, 
never without reference to the infallible. There is 
none but One Being whose authority is of itself 
the sufficient reason for our action. Therefore, we 
are not only not commanded to render unquestion- 
ing obedience to any, even the highest authority 
set over us, but we are expressly forbidden to 
render such obedience without constant regard to 
Him who is over all. Indeed this is the form of 
test to which man was at first, and to which he 
is ever subjected in this life. It is never enough 
to say this or that was commanded by any 
authority, even the most sacred and legitimate 
by divine appointment set over us. No ; we must 
not stop short of the divine authority. But we are 
justified in resting here. And why? Assuredly 
because we can know, can not but know, that 
what is commanded really has behind it infinite 
reasons. For we must always thus judge; God, 
who commands us to go in this way, sees all the 
reasons, sees all the ends to be attained, as though 
they were already secured ; all is present to his 
mind. We cannot rise to that position from which 
all can be seen. But we can be assured that He 
who seeth all is wise and good, and therefore, by 



206 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

an easy, ready and unavoidable process of reason- 
ing, we, on purely rational grounds, conclude that 
what is commanded is what ought to be done, 
since all reason supports and enforces it. To be 
certain that an act is wise and good, we must 
be assured that the -past requires it, and that the 
future will justify it. Without assurance in both 
these respects, how dare anyone proceed? And 
how else than by a divine command — some clear 
indication of the divine will — can such assurance 
be reached? 

The traditional enemies of faith and obedience 
should be met on their own ground. When they 
insist that man's acts to be wise and ri^ht must be 
reasonable, must be acts for which there are good 
and sufficient reasons, and these reasons plainly 
seen, let it be replied that Christians do not quarrel 
with this philosophy at all. They simply insist 
and confidently affirm that the divine command- 
ment is the best and highest of all reasons, the 
fullest possible assurance that the act commanded 
is one for which there is good and sufficient reason. 
Indeed it might be safely maintained that no creat- 
ure hath or can have in any other way than by 
a divine commandment, more than a probability 



WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? 207 

in favor of any proposed act, and that therefore 
no creatures are left without some intimation ot 
the divine will, and this as the law and the test 
of their loyalty, the condition of their well-being. 
Nor can it justly be objected that in this case the 
reasonableness of our acts is something that is hid- 
den from us, or is dimly or obscurely set before 
us. For in the divine command is gathered up 
all the reasons in one, somewhat as many rays of 
light may, by a mighty lens, be gathered into one 
bright and glorious luminary. 



CHAPTER III. 

PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 

Much needless perplexity had been avoided had 
men been content to accept the inscrutable. The 
predetermination of all events is that against which 
there has been the greatest uprising, the most 
senseless clamor in all the ages. If we would but 
reflect, we might see that with God there could be 
no determinations but such as to creatures must 
seem predeterminations. 

If we admit the proper unity of the eternity, the 
eternal "now" of God, or that "To the eye of 
God all Time is but one Eternal Present," * we 
shall have no hesitation in accepting, in all its 
extent, the doctrine that God hath " foreordained 
whatsoever cometh to pass." For why should 
a Being who is infinite, to whom the end is known 
from the beginning, be imagined to reserve his 

* Farrar's ' : Life of Christ," Vol. II., p. 25S. 
(208) 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 200, 

determinations. To the divine mind the future 
is present, so that, strictly speaking, the divine 
determinations cannot be called predeterminations. 
" He calleth the things that be not as though they 
were." 

Rewards are in store for the obedient, and pun- 
ishments for the disobedient? Assuredly. But 
when and how were these prepared? Who can 
believe that God prepares these after the acts of 
obedience or disobedience? Or who dare affirm 
that the infinite Ruler of the universe may, not to 
say must, make double preparation, as though the 
result were to him as yet uncertain, undetermined, 
or unknown? An individual or a nation or a 
whole race having sinned ; must agencies then be 
employed and directed against the sinful man, the 
sinful nation, or the sinful race? Agencies discon- 
nected from the succession of causes coming down 
from the remotest past? An individual, a nation, 
or a race is strictly obedient to all divine law ; 
must rewards and blessings be gotten together — 
rewards and blessings not resulting from the un- 
broken series of causes coming down from the 
very origin of the creation of God? The right- 
eous Judge of all will indeed punish or reward 



2IO MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

" according to the deeds done in the body," but 
the punishments and the rewards come always in 
the very warp and woof of the unbroken web 
which reacheth from the very beginning. With 
what measure of reverence couldst thou look up to 
that supreme (?) being who knoweth not yet ( !) 
whether in a given case rewards or punishments 
shall be required? Or knowing which of these 
shall certainly be needed, gravely provideth both 
— the one kind to be given, the other to be exhib- 
ited only? 

God's arrows — when are "they made" — when 
are they "made ready"? God's bow — when is 
it "bent"? Is not every arrow of divine justice 
that overtakes the sinner an arrow that was pre- 
pared of old, an arrow that has been speeding on 
its way through all the past, sheer to its mark ; 
a mark (to him who aimed the arrow) not recently 
discovered, not lately come into view ; a mark seen 
from eternity even as clearly as in the fulness of 
time? He purposes to punish the offender, but 
must he wait to discover the offender? He pur- 
poses, promises and -provides "great reward" for 
all who keep his commandments ; but the -pro- 
vision, as well as the purpose and the promise, 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 211 

is from the beginning. Man "waits and takes 
measures " according as events transpire ; God 
takes measures, not after, but before events tran- 
spire. 

The arrow from God's quiver, the arrow which 
we see only when about to " enter between the 
joints of the harness," if we could interpret the 
hieroglyphic which is upon it, we would see was 
marked of old for this sole end, and has been 
speeding on its way in all the past ; nor beside it 
might be seen balm or blessing, as if there might 
be need for these instead of the sharp arrow. 
Even the gunner in the sea-fight aims not at the 
swift-sailing ship, but at the place she will have 
reached. The archer sends his arrow to that point 
at which the swift bird shall have arrived. And 
cannot God aim his arrows with regard to that 
which he foreseeth infinitely more clearly than 
archer or gunner? Unto God, where and what 
each moral being shall be at every instant, can- 
not but have been known from eternity, — clearly, 
fully, certainly known, — so that to have made any 
arrangements with reference to such being, on the 
presumption that he might have been elsewhere, 
or different in character, could have been but 
mockery. 



212 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

I am aware that many will persist in holding 
that as man must provide for emergencies, as man 
must wait to see what course events will take, as 
man must not aim the arrow of justice till after the 
crime is committed, so God also must provide for 
emergencies, must be ready for whatever may 
transpire, or must make double preparation ; must 
wait till the free will of the creature ( ! ) has been 
exercised. 

That notions so crude, notions which will not 
endure for a moment the light of reason or of 
Scripture, should prevail so widely is truly aston- 
ishing. The notion that God's determinations are 
not from eternity, and that the forces of the natural 
and moral world are not — as they have been from 
the beginning — working together to the execu- 
tion of the eternal purposes of God, but that God 
waits and hesitates and regards with concern the 
conduct of his creatures ; and then, seeing how 
their wills finally decide, and how they at length 
act, institutes proceedings accordingly, is a notion 
that is either ridiculous or blasphemous, according 
to the measure of intelligence in the person enter- 
taining it. 

That which more than anything else leads to 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 213 

this mistake is overlooking the fact that our re- 
sponsibility is in no way affected by the divine 
foreknowledge or predetermination. 

Even finite sovereigns, or rulers — presidents of 
republics as well as kings and emperors — make 
real preparation beforehand for the punishment 
of criminals. For this purpose prisons are built. 
The governments know that in the century to come 
there will be crime and criminals to be dealt with. 
And undeniably before laying the foundation, those 
proposing to erect such buildings will carefully 
consider and study the entire situation, so as to be 
able approximately to estimate what number of 
culprits may be expected and should be provided 
for. The data for such estimate is of course very 
extended and very various ; the nationality, the 
religion, the education, the temptations — not to 
speak of the moral or religious forces at work, 
or to be yet set to work. It must be evident that 
this data cannot be collected and used as a basis 
of calculation, therefore prison-builders behoove to 
build at a venture. And often large prisons, owing 
to unexpected moral and salutary movements, hap- 
pily are almost untenanted. Or they build prisons 
that must be overcrowded or cannot possibly con- 
tain the criminals. Now what have we here? 



214 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

(a) A government making actual preparation 
beforehand for dealing with criminals not yet born. 

(5) A government exercising utmost care and 
taking every means in its power to ascertain as 
nearly as possible what and what kind and how 
much provision should be made ; that is, a gov- 
ernment desiring and endeavoring to know just 
what will be needed, with a view of taking action 
accordingly. 

(c) But who is so blind as to see not that the 
governments in these ways plainly and frankly 
confess that they would build prisons neither larger 
nor smaller than will be necessary, if only they 
could know what would actually be needed. 

(d) It appears, then, that so far from taking 
no measures with reference to the punishment of 
criminals till after the crimes are committed, all 
governments do take measures according to the 
degree of their knowledge; and what is this if 
not a confession that were their knowledge more 
extended and accurate, their measures would be 
correspondingly so? But where should this lead 
us? If governments desire and seek, in the use 
of all means in their power, to know what will be 
needed, it is unquestionable that on the same prin- 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 215 

ciple, if their knowledge were perfect, their meas- 
ures, appropriations for dealing with all crimes and 
with all criminals, would also be complete and per- 
fect. We have only then to accept the principles 
upon which absolutely all government by man is 
administered, and carry these up in their plain and 
obvious application to the divine government, to 
arrive at the conclusion that under the divine gov- 
ernment actual measures have been taken ; actual, 
ample, and every way adequate provision has been 
made for dealing appropriately with " every one 
according to the deeds done in the body." And 
this provision is not to be considered as of a gen- 
eral or indefinite kind. Neither defect nor excess 
can be thought of as characterizing this prepara- 
tion. 

There are no difficulties raised by this view 
which do not appear on any view that can be 
taken of the dealings of a being infinite in all 
perfections. Nothing is gained by assuming that 
divine decisions are reserved till after the decision 
of the free will of the creature ; for both the 
decision of the free will of the creature and the 
decision of the Divine Being, — which, according 
to the supposition, was reserved till after it, — be 



2l6 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

they what they may, must have been known to 
the Omniscient from eternity. So that it is plain 
that whoso knoweth what events shall transpire, 
and what determinations he will make in view of 
them, has already made such determinations. 

If it be said that this must not affect our conduct : 
" We must act in view of the promises and threat- 
enings just as though the divine determinations 
were made all along the line of our daily lives. " 
The truth plainly seen, may, nay, must often 
appear to be, and really be awe-inspiring and 
amazing — God meant that it should be. Never- 
theless, truths of utmost solemnity, and even ter- 
ribleness — views of the character and " goings" 
of Him who reigns over all — even when these 
amaze and terrify, astound and perplex, are yet, 
ever, when with reverent and devout spirit enter- 
tained, truths and views which bind us to right- 
eousness and loyalty, and to truthful confidence. 
Dealing with God, the eternal now of God is 
brought down to us, and abides with us, moving 
on even as the refreshing sheltering shadow of the 
cloud over the marching Israel in the wilderness. 
"We need not pray, for all has been determined 
from eternity." Ah, God's eternity is ever present ; 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 217 

and the meeting with God, though to us it is in 
time, yet to God it is in the eternity. He that 
cometh to God at any time cometh to God not 
later or earlier in God's eternity, but cometh to 
him in that eternity which is one, and no more 
marked off by lines and measures and bounds 
than is space itself. 

It would even seem that our manifest and easily 
recognized relation to infinite space — as infinite 
space is manifestly one, so that no person can 
intelligibly think himself at this or that place with 
reference to infinite space, but always in the one 
same necessary unchangeable relation thereto — 
was designed to aid us in conceiving of duration 
or eternity as also one, and that unto which our 
relation is and must be at all times the same. 

Of the widest sea we sail upon we may say : 
"Now we are nearer to this shore; now we are 
in the midst of the sea ; now we are nearing the 
farther shore." But were this sea, boundless, 
shoreless, such language would be not merely 
childishness, but madness. The duration which 
we regard, the time we live in, is not, as we some- 
times think it to be, preceded by an eternity unto 
which minutes and days and years are being con- 



2l8 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

stantly added, ( ?) is not followed by an eternity 
from which days and weeks and months are con- 
stantly being carved. No ; there are not two 
eternities — eternity is one. There are not two 
infinite spaces. For they everywhere coincide 
and become one, even while we strive to think 
them two. So also the eternity in which God 
dwells and from which he speaks unto, and deals 
with us, is one eternity ever present. So long as 
we think otherwise, we shall have no end of difficul- 
ties in regard to God's predeterminations. With 
most persons who are truly devout and trustful 
toward God, the "now" of God's ever present 
eternity is accepted with childlike spirit. And this 
sweet simplicity of true piety is justified by the 
severest and most searching thought. 

When we think of events occurring earlier or 
later in duration, we are not thinking of their 
relation to eternity at all. For separate them 
myriads of years, yet are they not at all differently 
related to eternity but only to events in time or in 
finite duration ; even as two objects separated by 
vast distance from each other are not differently 
related to infinite space, so that you can affirm of 
one of them what you could not of the other. In 



PROVISION FOR THE ACTUAL. 2IO, 

fact, any one object, in so far as its relation to 
space is concerned, may be regarded as in the 
very centre * of infinite space, from which it can 
never wander. Indeed we lapse from the concep- 
tion of space when we entertain the thought of the 
possibility of the change of relation unto it. 

But have we not here in omnipresent space — 
a pure and simple unit, manifestly infinite, its 
infinitude ever pressed upon us — a type of the 
Omnipresent Infinite Being? And is it not this 
which is beautifully and forcibly presented to us 
in the Word of Inspiration? 

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? 

Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. 

If I make my bed in sheol, behold ! thou art 

there ; 
If I take the wings of the morning, 
And dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, 
Even there shall thy hand lead me, 

* If indeed the word "centre" did not amount to a solecism. 
Some have, as we all know, ventured to define space as " a 
sphere whose centre is everywhere, its circumference nowhere." 
While such definition is manifestly puerile, it at least indicates 
that those making it had some faint conception of the neces- 
sary relation of each thing to the unit infinite space. 



220 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

And thy right hand shall hold me. 

If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm 

me, 
And the light about me shall be night, 
Even the darkness hideth not from thee, 
But the night shineth as the day : 
The darkness and the light are both alike to 

thee. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 

Nothing has perplexed even gifted and reverent 
minds more in all the ages than the question, How 
can it be that the universe is governed by law, 
that whatsoever comes to pass is not only fore- 
known, but foreordained, and yet provision made 
for prayer, and the answer of prayer? We think 
of prayer as having been greatly delayed, as 
offered up in " man's extremity," and we wonder 
how without violence to the order of the universe, 
without interference with the reign of law, it can be 
answered. But really the latest prayer was before 
God when the earliest was ; rather, was present to 
the divine mind before time began ; and in view 
of it (as of everything else that occurs in the 
universe) he started those harmoniously working 
forces for the ends wise, glorious, and perfect, 
which he set before him. Indeed, if we simply 



222 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

admit that every prayer was contemplated from 
eternity — which is simply to admit that in the 
realm of the moral, as of the material universe, 
means and end were together embraced in one 
perfect purpose — there is no need for a special 
philosophy which shall account for prayer and the 
answer of prayer. 

Spontaneous as to us it seems, it is not therefore 
either unknowable or separated from the order and 
chain of events fixed and determined from the 
beginning. It may be indeed one of the most 
wonderful examples and instances of the marvel- 
ously nice arrangements in the moral and material 
universe, nevertheless it is not different in kind, 
but in degree, from those other arrangements which 
elicit boundless admiration and delight. That 
there should be provision for all the complicated 
attractions "felt " by any of the great orbs in pur- 
suing their appointed paths in space, never fails 
to excite in the mind of the astronomer devout 
admiration. But that marvelous arrangement by 
which the sons of God are enabled to pursue 
" their course" through all dangers and trials, 
and by which their prayers in every crisis of their 
lives are graciously answered, is an arrangement 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 223 

which really reveals the glory of the Creator in 
a way which transcends the most marvelous pro- 
visions for the order and harmony of the material 
universe, even by how much the moral and the 
spiritual transcend the material. " Before they 
call I will answer." Provision for the answer 
may well be believed to have been made before- 
hand ; and instead of detracting from, this immeas- 
urably enhances and commends the transaction. 

Nothing can so profoundly move the devout sup- 
pliant as the assurance that God not only loves him 
and cares for him, but that God loved — "yea, 
I have loved thee" — and careth for him, in that 
he created the universe, and in that he governs 
it so that all things "work together for good." 
For thus he is admonished that the goodness of 
God found expression in all his works ; that God, 
who is his friend, compels the universe to be 
friendly to him, " the stones of the field" to be "in 
league" with him, the "stars in their courses" to 
fight his battles. And indeed, why should it be 
thought strange that God should make the uni- 
verse to do his will ? Man may not always be able 
to govern that which he himself constructs. For- 
eign interferences may disappoint his best endeav- 



224 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

ors. But God is Lord of the universe, and this 
not in that vague and general sense dreamed of by 
heathen philosophers, but in that perfect, accurate 
sense so clearly, fully declared by Christ. "Are 
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet can- 
not one of them fall to the ground without your 
Father^ 

It is our privilege not only to look up to God 
himself as favorable to us, but also to look upon 
all the works and ways of God as the expression 
of his favor. How this view endears to us the 
whole material creation as it meets our eye from 
day to day. How this view enables us to regard 
with serene and joyful interest the wonderful works 
of the Creator and the whole order of events in 
providence as these are unfolded to us. And let 
it be noticed that for the support of this view 
nothing more is required than simple faith, accept- 
ing the plain word of Scripture in its obvious, 
unmistakable meaning. Unfortunately we soon 
turn away from the words " All things work 
together for good," and in the hour of trial pass 
over and join with Jacob, complaining, li All these 
things are against me." 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 225 

The Omnipresence of God 

In 

Eternity. 

That "with God the past and the future are 
as the present," or " that to the eye of the Su- 
preme all time is one eternal present" while it is 
accepted in words, there is reason to fear is rarely 
accepted in itself, and in its plain and practical 
bearings. For is it not self-evident that the ac- 
ceptance, in good faith, of the unity of the eternity 
and of the presence of God therein, simply lifts the 
clouds which gather around the whole question of 
a particular gracious providence, and the answer 
to the prayer of those who believe, love and serve 
the Lord? 

And no other view — theological or philosophi- 
cal — can do for us what this view does ; i.e., can 
bring us to see that in prayer we deal with a Being 
who is present to us not only in space, not only 
in the place we are in, a place not separate or 
separable from that wherein God dwelleth, but in 
duration, in the moment of it now present, or, 
strictly speaking, now passing ; and this moment 
not cut off or separated either from the past or the 
future, but coinciding with the eternity which God 



226 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

himself " inhabiteth." Indeed it is as if from the 
eternity past our petition had been addressed unto 
"our Father which is in heaven." For in dura- 
tion absolute, that is, in eternity proper, there is 
no past, no future, but one eternal present. And it 
is in God's eternal present that all praying ones 
meet with him. 

To us there must seem to be not only two dis- 
tinct and clearly separated portions of our earthly 
life, but two distinct and separated eternities, the 
past and the future. From the future — of life, 
and of eternity to come — minutes, hours, days, 
and years taken; to the past — of life or eternity 
past — the same added. But this seeming, itself 
furnishes its own correction. For we need not 
tarry long in reaching the conviction that whatso- 
ever can either suffer diminution or addition, can- 
not be infinite. 

And in another way we get the same salutary 
correction. We can soon come to the most un- 
qualified assurance that two infinites of the same 
kind cannot be. There is clearly no contradiction 
or inconsistency in thinking of the co-existence of 
infinite space and infinite duration. But two infi- 
nite spaces are not thinkable. They coincide, 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 227 

they become one even though we try to think 
them two. But it is quite as clear that the notion 
of two eternities is equally absurd. 

The proper conception of the unity of the eter- 
nity is the conception of the present — which we all 
distinctly have. From what we know of our pres- 
ence in any place, we form our conception of God's 
presence in every place. We think of him as 
being present everywhere, as we are present any- 
where. Exactly corresponding to this, we get our 
conception of God's presence in all duration by 
means of our presence at any point of duration. 
Accordingly when we would form the truest idea 
of the eternity wherein God dwelleth, we must 
conceive of it as an " eternal present," an " eternal 
now" ; even as of the omnipresence of God in the 
unit space, we conceive of him as being " here," 
that is, where we are. " Truly God was in this 
place." "Ascend I heaven; lo, thou art there." 
But does not this lead us to a very clear and 
very practical and most soul-satisfying view of 
our nearness to God, in his eternity and in his 
immensity? 

With gladness, while with the utmost awe, we 
may then accept it, that our now and God's coin- 



228 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

cide ; that there are not really two units, the 
present, the moment, and eternity ; but the one 
unit eternity which in its entireness is the now of 
God, wherein we may meet with him ; and that 
our place, our here, is not separate from that of 
God, but being in space is of space which is a 
unit, and one to which all places within it are 
equally related.* So that when we meet with 
God in the place we are in which seems restricted, 
infinitesimal, we really meet with him in his im- 
mensity. 

* The unit, a point; the unit, a moment — moment true and 
proper, not duration, not divisible — are not these the divinely 
provided means by which we come to something like a just con- 
ception of the omnipresence of God in space and in eternity? 
for these are, and are even to us, manifestly and undeniably true 
and proper units. 

But these not only enable us to come to some very clear and 
satisfactory view of the omnipresence of God in duration and in 
space, but we are led to see that in the " now" and the " here," 
that is, in the present time and in the present place, we may 
meet with God. And that the " now" of which we are always 
clearly conscious, as present, and the " here " of which we have 
like and clear knowledge, is always the appointed time and the 
appointed place of our meeting with him ; the " trysting-filace " 
of believing souls. 

But clearly connected with this we may also see that the 
" now," though evanescent, and the " here," though infinitesi- 
mal, though indivisible, though a point, and a moment true 
and proper; the one having neither length, breadth or thick- 
ness, the other having no parts — do nevertheless, rather, do 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 229 

How can we rightly prize the places and the 
moments of our earthly lives? Are these not 
windows which open directly into the infinitudes, 
immensity and eternity, wherein God dwelleth? 
'•''Praying always.'''' " Thou God seest me." 
"Truly God is in this -place." Time and place. 
Appointed time, appointed place. And know that 
better time and better place could not be. "Now" 
is the accepted "time'* — and "now," always 
implies " here." This, then, is God's time and 
place by express and plainly revealed appointment. 

because of this — their being true units, their having no parts — 
bring us close to that other unit of, and in which, each of these 
— that is, every " now " and every "here," every time and 
every place, cannot but be. 

For when thought is dealing with space, only two proper 
units are thinkable, a point and space absolute. So also in 
dealing with duration — the moment true and proper, and 
eternity. 

But that which is of the utmost interest in this whole matter 
is, the coincidence of these pairs of units. When we say that a 
point is a unit and that space absolute is a unit; when we say 
that a moment is a unit and eternity a unit; and when we say 
that between these no other unit is thinkable: it must not be 
thought that we really hold the view that there can be in that 
which is itself a unit — immensity or eternity — the possibility 
of another, much less of an indefinite number of proper units. 
No, while to us the unit eternity can be known only in the unit 
the moment; and while to us the unit immensity can be known 
only in the unit a point, or the " here " ; to God eternity is all 
moment, that is, presetit ; and immensity all the point or 
" here." 



23O MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

Nor will any one gain a just view of the precious- 
ness of the time and of the place, unless he accept 
it that the time and place to him so restricted is 
related to, identifies with, that of God, which is un- 
limited and infinite. Thus : We pray at this late 
day and in the midst of affairs, in these ends of the 
earth, in our place and our time ; yet time and 
place in which he is present to us, because present 
in his own immensity and eternity, unto which all 
times and all places are equally related. Since 
the Being we address in prayer is One who filleth 
immensity, whom "the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain," who " inhabiteth eternity" ; and since 
whatsoever shall be was provided for from the 
beginning, there is no need for a special philosophy 
in regard to prayer ; for then, clearly, the praying 
one, pray when and where he may, meets with 
God not sooner or later in his eternity ; not in this 
or that place in his immensity, but in the " now" 
and the "here" of the suppliant, which are also 
the now and here of God himself. 

And think also that God's being present with 
thee in this -place is not simply because he is pres- 
ent in all places, but rather because he is present 
in space absolute, which is inclusive of all places ; 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 231 

even so, God's being present with thee at this 
time is not simply because he is present in all 
times, but rather because he is present in, he 
inhabits eternity ■, which is inclusive of all times. 
For the created universe we cannot for a moment 
imagine to be limitless, as space and as eternity 
wherein God himself dwelleth. Precisely as it 
would be manifest folly to think of being nearer 
to God by going from the place we are in to some 
other place, supposed to be differently related to 
infinite space, so it is really folly to think of meet- 
ing with him at a time differently related to his 
eternity. The place, the time, "now" "here" 
these touch, melt into, coincide with — so far as 
the finite can with the infinite — God's own now 
and here, whereof there can be no limit. The 
Everywhere Present in Space, the Everywhere 
Present in Eternity, who is now everywhere pres- 
ent both in space and in eternity, heareth thy 
prayer; and this, not late or early in his eternity, 
not in this or that place in his immensity, for in 
eternity there is no late or early ; and in immensity 
there are no places, there is no "there" but only 
"here" 

Pray now, this is God's time and thine. Pray 



232 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

here ; this is thy place by him appointed. Wonder 
of wonders, joy above all joys — for it is as if 
before creation he had given to thee audience ; had 
said "what is thy request, what is thy petition, 
it shall be given thee." Truly in this we see at 
once God's marvelous grace and man's glorious 
hope. How in his word the folly of mankind is 
ever pictured and portrayed and much bewailed, 
in that as "birds taken in an evil net, so man 
knoweth not his time." With what vehement plead- 
ings, with what heavenly yearnings, what infinite 
tenderness are we entreated to consider and prize 
and profit by our " day of visitation." And what 
soul of man, whether saved or lost, could without 
some touch of tenderness, recall the figure, the 
attitude, the tones, the tears, with which from 
Olivet the Friend of Sinners exclaimed "Oh, 
that thou hadst known in this thy day!" or the 
awful sentence following: " But now they are hid 
from thine eyes." 

It is as if at the very dawn of time thou hadst 
been permitted to put in thy whole desire in one 
all-embracing prayer. It is as if before the march 
of time began thy prayer had been given preced- 
ence, had been the first prayer made before the 
mercy seat. 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 233 

And know that at thy prayer — oh, wondrous 
grace and w r ondrous power — He maketh all 
things work together for good to thee, the uni- 
verse thine, God "for" thee, and all that God 
hath made, for thee. 

All confusion regarding this matter cometh of 
our mingling things quite separate. Our rela- 
tion to the finite, both as regards time and place, 
may be endlessly varied. Our relation to the in- 
finite — as space and duration — cannot but be, 
and be very manifestly, always the same. From 
place to place in space, true and proper, that is 
without regard to anything existent in space, no 
one can without absurdity be imagined to pass ; for 
no change could take place as regards his relation 
to infinite space itself. From period to period in 
eternity no one can progress ; for eternity consid- 
ered apart from things existent, hath no periods. 
All times and places are swallowed up in the eter- 
nity ; separate them far as imagination can sepa- 
rate, they meet and become one in the eternity 
and the immensity ; their difference of relation to 
each other affects not in the slightest degree their 
common relation to the infinity of and to which 
they are. Mind is not extended, or that which 



234 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

hath dimensions ; the infinite because in the unit 
immensity and in every part — rather everywhere 
and wholly everywhere in immensity ; and each 
finite mind because located, and this, not in meas- 
urable space, but in the unit "here" its place, 
coinciding always with the unit immensity, which 
includes all places. 

While we are constrained to admit the omnipres- 
ence of God in the immensity, we are ever con- 
fronted with its manifest incomprehensibility ; for 
it is not the acceptance of the notion of a being 
" dispersed" or extended in space ; but rather the 
firm and full belief that he himself in all that he 
is, is ever present wheresoever we are, and where- 
soever we are not ; God, not by this or that organ, 
attribute, or power, not by what he doeth or by 
what he perceiveth, but God himself present ever 
to whatsoever is in space ; God himself in all that 
he is ever wholly present to each one of us, and 
alike present to each. This is indeed the most 
wonderful, the most awakening, the most startling 
of all truths which it is possible the human mind 
can entertain ; awakening and startling, but when 
we know him as " our God" and know that he 
is "for us" the most comforting, cheering, and 
hope-inspiring. 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 235 

Not only are all things and all persons and all 
events, past, present and future, ever -present to 
God in a fuller, clearer and nearer sense than can 
any person, thing or event be at any time present 
to us, or to any finite being, but they are present 
to God in a manner in which nothing, without 
us, can be present to us ; * for we know and can 
know things (outside our own minds) only ^per- 
ception ; and perception not of the thing itself, but 
of the phenomena or appearances from which we 
form our conception of the thing itself, its essence, 
its nature ; and, so far as now appears, we can 
know nothing, beyond our own mental acts or 
states, but by means of organs of perception ; and 
that in these we may be deceived, is too fully 

* In any view of the question, How God " inhabiteth eter- 
nity," i.e., whether we accept the view that past, present and 
future are alike present to God ; or that he simply foresees the 
future and remembers the past; we cannot hesitate to accept it, 
that any event, whether in the past or the future, is quite as fully 
known to him as what is present to him ; or as such future 
event could be when it should become present to him; that is, 
an event which is yet many centuries in the future, it must not 
be thought, will in any respect come more fully or clearly before 
the divine mind, when it transpires ; nor can we entertain the 
notion that any decisions of the divine mind regarding such 
event, can be reserved or delayed ; since no accession of knowl- 
edge regarding anything or any event can, without blasphemy, 
be imagined. 



236 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

and variously demonstrated to admit of a moment's 

doubt. 

Knowledge 

by 

Presence Unto That Which is Known. 

There is indeed in man that which we may 
venture to call a type or shadow of that way 
whereby God himself knoweth all things by his 
presence unto them. 

Man's own thoughts * he knows by being pres- 
ent unto them. These, only these, he knows 
without the intermediation of organs of percep- 
tion. Thought — in the sense including all mental 
acts — is present to the ego, mind, soul, or self, 
thinking, somewhat as all things are present unto 
God. Man is directly, fully, clearly conscious of 
his own thought at the time he thinks it ; and this 
because he, without any mediation of any kind, is 
present unto it and it is present to him. 

But what is the created material universe of 
matter and mind in its entireness but the thought 
of God\ — the thought of God revealed; that is, 

* " Man's own thoughts," that is, all mental acts or operations, 
including all that he does and all that he suffers, for in receiving 
impressions the mind is as truly active as in any other case. 

f " How precious also are thy thoughts." In his works we do 
but " read the thoughts of God after him." 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. . 237 

made cognizable unto rational beings? Now, as 
God's thought — the universe as it now is and 
as it ever shall be, including all its progress 
and unfoldings — was clearly, exactly, fully pres- 
ent to God "before the highest part of the dust 
of the earth was formed"; even so, his thought 
fully revealed — " materialized," so to speak, made 
cognizable to his creatures — is still present to the 
divine mind, ever equally present to the divine 
mind ; and this, not by perception of it, either by 
organs or without organs, but by his presence unto 
whatsoever is. 

Man's thoughts are evanescent ; God's thoughts 
are enduring. " The counsel of the Lord that 
shall stand, and the purposes of his heart to all 
generations." 

If, then, in all simplicity we accept it, that what- 
soever hath been, is, or shall be, is always present 
to the divine mind in a way which is like that in 
which a thought is present to the mind of man 
as and when he thinketh it, we may be greatly 
helped to a right and very satisfying view of what 
Scripture so fully and variously teaches us, not 
only respecting the divine knowledge of all things, 
but especially respecting his -presence unto all 



238 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

things, persons and events in all space and in 
all duration ; for we must not think that the 
thoughts of God, because revealed by his word 
and by his works and by his providence — re- 
vealed not for an instant but through vast ages 
and cycles — do therefore in any respect depart 
from him ; they are ever equally present to him. 
" Known unto God are all his works from the 
beginning of the world" 

Mercy 

in 

Answer to Prayer. 

In all Scripture, in the recorded experience of 
the saved who have gone before us, and in our 
experience of divine mercy in tfie past of our lives, 
we are taught that it is the Lord's way to dispense 
blessings in answer to prayer. Providence con- 
strains us to pray. Life is to all men trial. " When 
he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." ' 
How much of trial and what kinds of trial are re- 
quired God himself alone can know. And it is 
his way to reveal to us his will in these matters, 
for the most part, day by day as we go on in life. 

1 Job. XXIII. : IO. 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 239 

We have a divine revelation in Holy Scripture, 
any page of which we may open at will. We 
have a divine revelation in providence ; one which 
God himself, with his own hand, opens to us 
page after page day by day. Should we not 
then look upon it with deep reverence, with devout 
attention, with earnest desire to know its meaning, 
and with earnest prayer that we may profit by 
what is thus revealed to us? It is God's will. It 
is a revelation. It is God's will concerning us. 
It is a revelation unto us, and for our benefit. 

At the close of one of the wonderful presen- 
tations of the established order and course of 
providence in dealing with mankind, we read : 
" Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even 
they shall understand the loving kindness of the 
Lord." J He who speaks to man in tones of infinite 
tenderness in his word, deals with man in infi- 
nite tenderness in his providence. His providence 
is freighted with good, and only good, to those 
who love and serve him. Can this be so made 
clear to us that we shall habitually derive from it 
that measure of comfort, satisfaction and joy which 
it is suited to impart ? The faith that infinite good- 
1 Ps. evil". : 43. 



24O MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

ness directs all the movements of those "high and 
dreadful wheels " l which at times seem to threaten 
our destruction, is a faith which is sublime indeed. 
There are times when all things seem to be against 
us ; yet in the very darkest hour, with this faith 
reigning in our souls, we can say "It is well." 
"He doeth all things well." "The whole paths 
of the Lord are truth and mercy." " Goodness and 
mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." 

Whoso would preserve this faith in its bright- 
ness and in its triumphant and benignant reign, 
must look sheer above the highest rim and bor- 
der of the "high and dreadful wheels" — must 
have the eye of the soul ever open towards the 
Infinite — must gaze steadfastly upon the Glorious 
One who guides all unerringly to the end which 
he himself has ever in view. In this matter, the 
most advanced Christian philosopher must, in these 
days, even as the humblest of the Hebrews in the 
days of old, see and mark the " hand of God" in 
all that transpires in nature around him, and in all 
the events of providence. For it is with God that 
we have to do. The vast and wonderful series of 
intervening objects and agencies which seem to 

1 Ezekiel 1. : 18. 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 24I 

come between us and him, do not separate us from 
him. Through all these he worketh. By these 
he worketh. In these he reveals himself. In 
these he comes near to us. 

We are responsible for the double revelation 
which God makes to us : the one now completed 
and delivered to us in the word of Scripture ; the 
other given to us day by day even all our lives. 
The fixed and completed word of revelation is 
given us that we may by it interpret the other 
revelation which God is perpetually making to us 
in his providence. This is the duty, this is the 
privilege to which we are called. More tran- 
scendent, more instructive, more inviting, more 
enrapturing theme could not be imagined ! Is it 
true that the whole course of divine providence, 
rightly interpreted, reveals the loving kindness of 
the Lord? God in nature, God in providence, 
the same God whose infinite goodness we have 
learned, observed and experienced in grace? If 
we place before us the most tender and loving 
words of Scripture, and look up from these to the 
wonder and mystery of providence, what joy, what 
rapture, what ecstasy may we not feel, as we dis- 
cover in providence the same loving kindness which 



242 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

we find written in the word? Indeed, only thus 
can we rise to the region of serene, perfect peace 
and rest. The outlook of the man of God who has 
not only learned to read the Bible and rightly in- 
terpret it, but who has also learned to read and 
rightly interpret the order and course of divine 
providence, is grand and inspiring. His sky may 
not always be without its clouds $ yet they are 
clouds which detract nothing from the glory or the 
beauty of the heaven that is over him. " All is 
well." "The good Lord reigns." "The earth 
is full of his goodness." Providence is a perpetual 
manifestation of the loving kindness of the Lord. 
Whoso interprets it otherwise, misinterprets it. 
This the best of God's servants are at times 
tempted to do. 

Poor, sorrowing, heart-broken Jacob exclaims : 
"All these things are against me!" Devout, 
courageous David, " hunted as a partridge in the 
wilderness," cries out in an hour of sadness : " I 
shall one day fall by the hand of Saul ! " Even 
the intrepid and heroic Elijah flees into the wilder- 
ness and lies down under a juniper-tree, saying : 
" Let me die." 

No, Jacob, all these things are not against thee ; 



PROVIDENCE AND PRAYER. 243 

they are for thee. "Jose-ph is yet alive" ; he is 
sold into Egypt, but ' % God means it for good." 

No, David, thou shalt riot " fall by the hand of 
Saul" ; thou shalt live and reign and " sing of the 
mercies of the Lord forever." 

No, Elijah, thou shalt not die " under the juniper- 
tree " ; thy body shall not lie in the wilderness to 
be devoured by the wild beasts of the field. Jeze- 
bel shall die ingloriously, but thou shalt escape 
death ; shalt ride in triumph to glory ; shalt ascend 
to heaven "in a chariot of fire." 

Be assured, oh, tried and tempted child of God, 
that in like manner all thy fears shall vanish, while 
deliverances, blessings, honors, joys, shall be given 
thee, even exceeding abundantly all that thou art 
able to ask or think. 

Very difficult is the interpretation of providence. 
Faith is required in reading providence as in read- 
ing the word. What is the key to the books of 
God? What is that which is most essential to the 
right interpretation of the word or the work or 
the providence of God? Surely the right concep- 
tion of his character. Only with the true idea and 
conception of the Supreme Being as most merci- 
ful, are we prepared to read the threefold volume 



244 MERCY IN THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. 

ever open before us. Personal experience of his 
grace as the hearer of prayer is necessary to 
a right view of his word, his work, or his provi- 
dence. 

Clouds and darkness are round about him — 
round about him in all the ways in which he 
manifests himself to his creatures ; round about 
him in his word, in his work, in his ways — yet, 
having experience of his goodness, his infinite 
goodness, even his mercifulness, we know that 
he is the same "Lord God, merciful and gra- 
cious," while the clouds and the darkness are 
round about him. If he has been merciful to us, 
he is merciful in himself. Oh, then, strive to get the 
key to the books of God. In these you may read 
forever with never-ending wonder and joy. For 
in these you will read the loving kindness of the 
Lord. Have right thoughts of him and you will 
see everywhere the marks and traces of his real 
character. Have right thoughts of him and you 
will not interpret against him, even the darkest 
portion of his word, his work, or his way. But 
you will "wait" and "watch" and "observe" 
and at last "understand" the loving kindness 
of the Lord. 



w, 




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